Wolves
by leafs nation
Summary: Jane, a lone survivor in an unforgiving world, arrives at Howe's just as a herd rips through the community. Finding a young girl inside, she reluctantly allows her to travel with her. And although Jane distances herself from the kid, figuring she'd just be another tragedy waiting to happen, Clementine's got a few demons of her own.
1. Into the maelstrom

_Clunk!_

The walker fell down in a heap, landing on the grass and face-planting onto a cracked kerbstone that signaled the start of the parking lot as its jaw cracked upon impact. Bits of dark, oozing blood and gore splattered beside the monster's head, and another one of its buddies slowly turned around to see what the noise was. Surprising, really, given the state of the place. This store was looking more like another dead end than the potential safe house I was hoping it would be. Walkers were literally _everywhere._

Making sure to have a firm grip on the blade handle, I let the other lurker trip over the downed one before plunging my knife into the back of his skull, too. These things really weren't difficult to get around, if you knew what you were doing, at least. Walk like them, act like them, cover yourself with their innards… relatively stable of a plan, surely. They're nothing if not predictable.

People, though? _Tch_ , yeah, completely different ballgame right there. How I've been dealing with people these days is about the same as what I did whenever I had to go to the dentist as a kid – avoided it like the plague. Groups were nothing but trouble. You're pretty much asking for shit to turn upside down, with no real hope of reprieve except for watching as they all get cut down, one after another.

But I was pretty much out of options this week. Rationing can only take you so far, and I had used up the last pouch of dried beets that I had picked up from that trailer a few dozen miles down the road. It was hardly the most satisfying thing in there, but when my stomach started roaring in protest, I figured enough was enough. Time for a new plan. A _better one_ , hopefully.

Straddled in the middle of the lot was a station for parking your shopping carts, and some of the walkers had found the clanging of their wheels interesting enough to keep them occupied. The majority of them were moving towards the hardware store though, a big paint job on the side of the building reading "Howe's Hardware" in bold, faded-out letters. I was hoping for a better scenario than an ocean of the undead when I arrived, but honestly, I think I'd prefer this than to be rolled out a welcome mat by whoever was unfortunate enough to still be inside. I had no idea who was running the place, but based on past experiences I wasn't really giving out any high expectations. Kind of the standard for people I didn't know, come to think of it.

Resolve deteriorating with nearly every step, I paused for a moment as I considered whether or not this is even worth investigating. I mean, it was just a building. It wasn't even a fun-looking building. Howe's Hardware wasn't really inspiring much confidence that it would somehow be a goldmine, and despite the fortifications that somebody had clearly made to the exterior walls, I wasn't so sure that they would hold these guys back for long.

Unfortunately, I was in a pretty tight spot, and hunger could make a person do almost anything. I wasn't going to survive much longer without some grub, and really, that was mostly all it was about anymore – surviving. For what? I didn't quite know. Maybe it was self-pragmatism, maybe it was some desperate and foolish hope that something better would finally come along. Maybe it was even cowardice, or selfishness.

But, for better or worse, maybe it was more about upholding a silent promise that I made to a sibling of mine, what seemed like a lifetime ago. If she was still here, with me right now… if Jaime could only…

 _Shut up,_ I scolded myself, biting my tongue and marching forward, feeling an icy chill wash over me as I ventured through the herd. _She's not here anymore. Get over it. How can you possibly expect to survive if you're constantly beating yourself up all the time?_

Breathing through my nose, I slowly walked past a walker with both of its limbs torn off and internally grinned. Jackpot – that ladder up to the rooftops would do the trick. It's a good thing the walkers were too stupid to capitalize on this. Climbing wasn't one of their strong suits.

Hearing nothing but the moans and bloodied gargles surrounding me, I trudged my way towards the ladder and grabbed onto the first rung. I was pointedly aware that my cover would likely be blown if the walkers saw me climb upwards, so I took one careful look over my shoulder before making my ascent.

As strange as it may sound, I was feeling a rush right there on that ladder. My heartbeat soared, my eyes were wide but determined, and my mouth ran dry as I found myself lost against a backdrop of the undead. There was a sort of thrill to doing this sort of thing day in and day out, one where you know that your life was on the line and one false step could send me plummeting to a fate worse than death. The ladder would only have to snap, to fall backwards for a split second, for me to end up getting eaten alive. I could even feel the metallic surface shake under my palms as a few of the walkers tried to snap at my legs.

I thrived in these sorts of _heat of the moment_ things. I'd gotten pretty good at it, even going so far as to say that, when push came to shove, I'd be able to overcome the odds and find a way to live. Slowly over time, I wasn't sure exactly when, I had made this backwards, upside down world my home. I made it my bitch.

As I finally reached the rooftops, knife drawn and at the ready as I stood to my feet, I scanned the area for any signs of life. Empty bullet casings littered the granule-covered roof a few feet away, but whoever fired them had obviously ran off or died some time ago. There weren't any automatic weapons around, not that I had really suspected to find any, but there was some sort of crowbar-looking thing slammed into the door handle leading downstairs. "Shit…" I hissed, trying my hand at opening it but quickly realizing that the path was blocked off. The blood and gore freshly stained onto the sharp end was disturbing enough, but I was in a bit of a predicament. If I couldn't use the stairs, how the hell was I supposed to move around this place?

Heading out towards the ledge, I stopped short as I came upon a large, glass-windowed building with the door having been hastily patched together with wood and nails. At first glance it didn't really seem like anything special, but as I pressed my nose up against the panels, having to squint through all the dirt and grime coming down my forehead, I caught a glimpse of the most satiating thing I had seen in weeks. Half-picked blueberry plants on the table, tomatoes and eggplants in the corner… this place was a fucking greenhouse! If I could get in there, I'd be set up comfortably for quite some time. The thought of eating something other than raw meat for a change was making my mouth water. _Mmm…_ fresh fruit and vegetables…

When I found that the thing was locked – because _of course_ it was – I took out my knife and jammed the blade into the slit. Shimmying it around a bit, I winced when I accidentally cut my finger open a tad, but the end result was more than worth it. The smell inside was unbelievable as I nearly dove onto the plant, and I licked my lips hungrily as I got to work putting them into a potato sack that was sitting idly in the corner nearby. It wasn't feasible or practical to take everything with the excess weight and all, but I thought to myself, as I stuffed a few blueberries into my mouth and reveled in their delicious taste, that if nobody was willing to come back for these with the walkers and all, I may as well make a few trips. With how profitable this trip had been so far, I was willing to go another few nights camped out underneath a pine, gazing at the stars and bearing the cold.

The makeshift bag itched against the back of my neck as I threw my collection of treasures over my shoulder. This would do nicely. I wouldn't go another night hungry, which eased my mind a little bit as I stepped back outside and left the door hang ajar behind me. I couldn't close the thing with how much I had shredded the lock, which made me a little anxious that the rest of it would be gone by the time I got back, but, brushing those thoughts aside, I pondered on whether or not to just call it a victory for the night and head back to my makeshift campsite a few miles away. I travelled light and didn't start too many large fires to pull attention to myself, but I had managed to pilfer away a ripped sleeping bag from an abandoned house, and it sure as hell was better than sleeping with the pine needles poking my sides all night long.

Getting out was going to be a challenge though. Those walkers still hadn't left the bottom of the ladder yet, and only seemed to get more riled up as I poked my head over to sneak a peek. But, with no other visible options about, and no clear indication as to whether this herd would get bored and scatter to the wind, I bit my lip and took a deep breath. _Alright, you can do this,_ I mentally prepared myself, drumming my fingers along my pant leg as I cringed at the lack of walker guts left on me. _Just gotta play it cool, 'kay? You know what to do. Just take it nice and slow, no sudden moves. Play the part, stick to the script._

That would be easier said than done, it looked like. On the ground, I was just a part of the herd. But climbing down like this would no doubt send them into a frenzy that I had no shot in hell of making it out of. So that was pretty much out of the question. Jumping wouldn't cut it, not with how high I was up here, not to mention the massive contusions I'd receive from the barbed wire junk fence surrounding parts of the hardware store.

Well, shit. What I wouldn't have given to just sprout a pair of wings out of my back right then and there. Would've made me look like an idiot and all, but hey, maybe it could've –

" _Fuck! Hank, I'm outta bullets here! How much stuff do you need?"_

" _Enough to get by – just need to pick up the essentials… goddamit, where'd Bill put those pills? I swear they here just the other day…"_

" _We don't have time! Everyone else is gone, dude! Shel, is Becca still with you?"_

Quickly darting to the side of the greenhouse to avoid detection, I held my breath as a man in a forest green jacket, glasses, long, blonde hair and a shaggy goatee stepped over to the side where I had been but moments ago. Shit… I thought for sure there wasn't anyone here. So much for that plan.

But, I thought to myself as another person, a woman with short hair and a turquoise sweater, popped her head up through the skylight leading into some sort of office, this could also be my chance. With all the noise these morons were making, the walkers might not notice me as much if I were to follow in afterwards. Let's face it – this place was about to be overrun in a hurry. I didn't know how quickly it would happen, but a hostile takeover was almost indefinite.

"She's in the holding bay with Tavia and Russ! Where's Bill?" Shel asked, occasionally darting her head back towards the office as I stole a glance to the other side of the roof. Hmm… if this skylight could be opened that way, then maybe… "We were supposed to meet up by the trucks!"

"You really care what happens to that guy _now?_ Did you not see what he did to them? I could hear the screams from down the hall!"

With a hop, skip and a jump, I tuned out the rest of their conversation as I tiptoed over towards the other roof access. With all the commotion going on out here I doubt they'd have heard me anyways, but I wasn't willing to take any chances. I'd already done so far more tonight than I was normally comfortable with, and with enough time, my luck would inevitably run dry. And I wanted to hold out for as long as I could.

Grateful that I hadn't yet cut my nails this month, I dug my fingers underneath the lid of the skylight and yanked upwards. With a _click_ , the hatch opened as I jumped down on a pile of boxes sitting atop a mountain shelves and supplies. Holy shit – this place was like a goddamn candy store, and right now I was Willy fucking Wonka. I had no idea why these people wouldn't just try to ride out the storm and defend the place, as they likely weren't going to be able to find something like this anytime soon. Everything was just so… _orderly_ , in here. Nothing seemed to be out of place, with various crates and boxes displaying different labels like _FOOD_ and _AMMUNITION_ in big, bold sharpie. Somebody with a steady hand had been working on some sort of project out in the middle of the floor; what appeared to be some sort of generator with wires connecting it to the garage door nearby.

And with wires comes electricity – real, working, electricity. I couldn't remember the last time I had seen something powered up like that. Weeks? Months, maybe? What seemed like a distant privilege was now within my grasp, but like the most ironic of ironies, I wouldn't be able to stay long enough to enjoy it.

Still, there wasn't much harm in having a bit of a look around. The walkers didn't seem to be able to get inside this place yet.

Shimmying my way across the shelves and nearly tripping on one of the larger supply crates, I finally managed to drop to the floor and dust myself off. Blood and guts had started matting my hair and staining my jacket, not to mention how nasty I was starting to smell, but I wasn't put off by it as I tried my best to pry open an ammunition box. After walking through enough herds, you eventually learned to forgo such luxuries as personal hygiene when it came to these things. Besides, it's not as if I was looking for any hot dates these days…

Snorting lightly at that, I struggled to remember the last time I had actually done that sort of thing. The details had gotten sort of blurry – which should tell you how impressive the night was – but I could recall bits and pieces. It so wasn't my idea to go out on the stupid date, but a certain little sister of mine had insisted. _You need to get some action,_ she had told me as I gaped at her for going that far. _C'mon, Jane. You look so lonely all the time, and your super depressing mood is screwing with my head. How am I supposed to enjoy myself when you look so miserable all the time?_

 _Gee, nice to see you care…_

 _You'll like him, I promise! He's not like that dork you went out with in eleventh grade. Err… what was his name again? Greg? Dylan?_

 _Derek! And he wasn't_ that _much of a dork._

 _Dude, he showed up to our house in a bow tie and overalls. That's not hipster, it's lame._

 _I'm not going on a blind date, Jaime! This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Text him back and tell him… gah… I dunno, make something up! You're good at that._

After another ten minutes of pestering, eventually having to resort to physically picking Jaime up by the waist and tossing her on the couch to keep her from barging into the bedroom of my apartment, I conceded. Lo and behold, the date ended up being a complete waste of time, just as I said it would, and it ended with me leaving the dinky shithole of a dance club we went to and never talking to the guy ever again. Frankly, I was pretty sure the guy would've had trouble remembering that I was even there in the first place with how many tequila shots he had downed in the span of like half an hour, but I at least had the decency to help the guy to a bar stool after standing and watching him puke his guts out over the toilet seat. The few other guys in the washroom paid it no heed, but simply nodded my way sympathetically before going about their business.

I closed my eyes for a moment or two to calm my breathing down a tad. Thinking about shit like this always hurt, more so now that she was gone. Losing her was what drove me over the edge, I think. If she could've just… If I could've just been a little bit stronger…

A set of three radios sat in their charging stations as I moved further inside. For a reason that I'm not quite sure, I inspected the plastic devices before putting two of them into the rupsack and switching them off to sustain the battery. It was a stupid thought, as I had started making a habit of keeping as far away from groups as possible, but for some reason it was a comfort to bring them along.

It was probably nothing… yeah, probably.

This was eerie as hell, though. Much of the store was an empty shell as I wandered into the next few halls alone to my thoughts, and with the herd of walkers outside enclosing the parking lot, I was starting to feel a little claustrophobic. Nothing serious, but hearing their groans echoing off the high ceiling above my head did nothing to bring comfort to this chilly night. All it would take is for one to break in, and then the flood would quickly follow.

I was sure there were still a few rooms that I hadn't checked yet, and I wasn't too keen on heading out to the little courtyard-looking area they had outside as I passed by one of the pull-down gates. What had most likely been for gardening supplies before the outbreak had been converted into some kind of sleeping area, coming with its own fire pit, lawn chairs, picnic table as well as some real crappy-looking beds made of plywood. Nothing about it seemed friendly, and if the barbed wire at the top of the fence was any indication, I'd say this place was used as more of a holding cell than a guest penthouse suite. These guys must've had some pretty shady characters lurking about… I couldn't help but wonder what you'd have to do in order to get thrown into there. Nothing good I'd imagine.

With the next couple of rooms not really holding anything promising that I could actually access, I figured that I might as well double back towards the set of stairs that I had seen earlier. Those people I saw earlier had already left, and after seeing the same girl – Shel, I think her name was? – bolting down the steps two at a time, I figured that they lead up to that office I spotted before. I'd say that coming here was decently worth it with the haul I managed to snag. _Tch_ , a bag full of food, bullets and a couple radios was probably the best I could hope for these days, but to get them all at once was pretty satisfying. And if the need arose, Howe's would be getting another surprise visit from me in the coming weeks.

But I couldn't keep living like a nomad forever. Wandering from place to place was, whether I liked to admit it or not, taking its toll on me. I'd become restless lately, a trait that I soon discovered was making me slightly more paranoid than usual. I'd flinch at even the tiniest of noises, turning around with my knife unsheathed only to find a bird nesting high up on a tree branch. Camping was proving to be more dangerous around here, too. In Ohio it wasn't as much of a problem, since the few scavengers I encountered mostly wanted nothing to do with me. But over here, although I hadn't come face to face with any yet, these guys seemed to be a bit out of their nutter. A trio of them were tearing apart some tents like a pack of wild animals, and I shuddered as I thought of the other group I saw, with the terrified screams of their victims, a family of four, chilling my body as I fled into the night. I don't even _want_ to know what they must've done to those people.

There had to be a place out there somewhere that wasn't completely indefensible. Howe's was way too big for a one person job, but something like a mobile home or a nice, little cottage? Heck yeah, I could get behind that. Nothing but me chilling and kicking out the rest of my days laid back on a wrap-around porch, sprawled out on the shoreline of a beach in which I could see a mile in every direction. The sun would glaze over my face as I would bask in the warm glow, and no amount of walkers would be there to ruin my years-long holiday.

… _sigh._ A girl could dream though, couldn't she? Not to mention that I was literally _nowhere near_ a solid coastline, and that nearly every place I stumbled upon was either in too much disrepair, occupied by someone else, or had no reliable access to the things I needed to keep my brain functioning and my heart beating. Besides, letting my head get stuck in the clouds like that wasn't really my thing.

As I started to get the sense that the walkers might've suspected somebody was in here, hearing their flailing limbs beating mindlessly on one of the doors, I counted my blessings and started heading towards the office stairs. This was usually how it went. I never stayed in a potential scavenging site for too long, and didn't take enough to slow me down too much for travelling. Itching at the dried blood caking my cheek, I tried picturing my escape plan in my head. There must've been some sort of emergency exit around here, but the one shitty part about this place having power was the potential noise. Opening up one of those doors might've sent out a warning call to every single thing out there, living or dead. It might as well have said, "Hey everybody! Guess who your next five-course meal is! This gal, right here!" Nobody can tell me that I lack imagination.

 _Fwip! Plunk! Fwwwwiiiippp!_

Knife drawn and at the ready almost instantly, I turned into the direction of the noises and narrowed my gaze into a deep frown. I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be a walk in the park, although for a while there my hopes were high. The sound was coming from one of the doors I hadn't yet explored yet, thinking that a room labelled "GARBAGE DISPOSAL" wasn't really high on the list of goody-finding. I'm not quite sure what compelled me to follow it as I slowly placed my hand against the door frame. It might've just been an incessant need to make sure that nobody would get the jump on me if push came to shove, but if nothing else, the garbage room might've provided a better alternative than trying to jump off the roof into… whatever it was that wanted to break my fall tonight. The ladder still wasn't seeming like a good idea. They've gotta have a trash chute here, right?

Nothing heard me enter as I slowly popped my head in from the side, but what I found within nearly made me slam the door and sprint out immediately. What looked to be a little girl was bent over a corpse, digging into its innards and lifting various organs into her hands. I didn't need to be a genius to see where this was going, but seeing the little girl, covered from head to toe in splotches of red covering her purple, long-sleeved shirt made me sick to my stomach. God damn it… I thought I'd be used to this shit by now. Dead people moving around was just a formality these days. But seeing this kid, with a blue and white ball cap sitting atop her head and completely oblivious as I force myself to look away for a moment, I couldn't stop throwing up in my mouth. Fuck… this is hitting a little too close to home…

I… I couldn't save her… Jaim- god, I can't even say the name right now…

No matter what I did, it wasn't enough. I couldn't bring her back, back from the brink. Back from that shitty, dark hole she had dug herself into.

I didn't know this girl… but maybe… just maybe... if I could help her along, end this nightmare for her… _fuck_ , I don't even know…

Fleeing was my very first instinct, but I hissed through my teeth and forced myself to sneak up behind her. This wouldn't take long. One solid gouge to the head would do it, and my deed of the day would be done. I'd fulfill my quota of "nice" for the day. Well, if you counted stabbing a walker as a real _nice_ thing to do…

But as I inched closer and closer towards the walker, I grew more confused. The thing had the guts in her hands as it dug through its latest victim, but it wasn't eating anything yet. I didn't see any of the telltale signs that usually followed these things like glue – the gargling, for one, was nowhere to be heard, and the thing's skin was oddly normal-looking.

Figuring that I was just losing my edge, I took a few more steps forward until I was standing a couple feet behind her. Lifting the knife to shoulder level, I threw my arm back, looked at my target, and –

Her head turned around then, and my eyes widened into saucers. I froze, stiffened as my hand lingered in the air. Although almost her entire face was covered in blood, I could tell that she was alive by the way she looked at me, too. By her shocked expression I guessed that I had caught her off guard, and as I slowly lowered my arm to my side (though still not putting the blade away), the girl stumbled back and tripped over the walker she was tending to.

More like the one she _butchered_ , I noticed, as I glanced at the way she had carved through the dead guy right through its sternum; a small hatchet still buried in the end with a piece of the handle bloodied from her endeavor.

Jesus. I wasn't expecting to see this, and from a _kid_ no less? She couldn't have been even fifteen years old, and yet she was doing the same technique I had used on a regular basis.

Not bad. Needed a little work, and her form needed to be a little cleaner, but give it enough time and…

 _Whoa._ Uh, how about no? Not happening.

I didn't really know what to say as I finally gave in and put the knife back into its sheath, so instead of making an intro, I frowned, sighed, and plunged my hands into the carved walker. Feeling the gooey substance in between my fingers was never something I really enjoyed doing, but time was precious and I needed to move on. No doubt I was making a terrible first impression right here.

Gaping at me, the girl quickly snatched her hatchet away and kept it close to her chest. I wasn't sure if she thought I was gonna steal it from her or something, but whatever. That didn't matter. I wasn't staying, and I didn't have time to answer a billion questions from some snot-nosed punk anyways.

My cold indifference had blanketed over my initial shock, and the last thing I wanted was for this to start turning into a thing. Drama was the _last_ thing on my mind.

However, as I got to work, spreading the walker guts as if it were sun-tan lotion, I made the mistake of glancing at the girl again. She hadn't yet run away like I had expected her to, but she wasn't saying anything, either. The kid tilted her head to the side like a lost, little puppy, but I couldn't really tell what she wanted. I couldn't read her body language, and her eyes were giving me nothing, and as I quickly darted my head back to the task at hand, I cleared my throat and stood back up. The awkwardness was pouring down in waves as she too stood up to join me.

"…you're not seriously…?" I stuttered, cringing as my voice cracked after having nobody to talk to for like six to seven months straight. This was ridiculous. "Ugh," I huffed with a frown, not wanting the extra baggage tagging along, "go on back to your crew already. Those people who were here before – you were with them, right? I'm sure they're still out looking for you… _somewhere_."

Seemingly choking up at that idea, she turned away from me and shook her head; clutching her hatchet even tighter as I rolled my eyes. I didn't have time for her childish behaviour, so I muttered a profanity under my breath and turned to go back to where I was heading before. This garbage room was a dead end anyways. Nothing here except for an old dumpster filled to the brim with cardboard and broken pieces of plastic.

I got about halfway up the stairs when I felt a smaller hand grab onto my wrist.

"The hell are you doing?" I hissed, snatching my arm away and turning around to face her again. A cat still had her tongue apparently, as she wouldn't speak or make any real indication as to whether she could fully understand what I was telling her, but she seemed pretty adamant on me not going that way. "Just leave me alone, would ya? What's your deal?" I demanded, taking a couple more steps forward as, yet again, she bumped into me.

 _Annoying little shit_ would be putting it mildly. This girl was pissing me off. Never before had I been so certain of my decision to forgo the whole "group survival thing" and trek out on my own than I was in this moment, but as much as I wanted to just shove her out of the way and finally – fucking _finally_ – leave this place behind, I stopped myself when she beckoned for me to follow her along. It was a sad, wimpy motion, one that made me think there might've been more going on here than what she was letting on, but I was still wary. I did _not_ trust this girl, not through any real fault of her own, but mostly by force of habit.

Deciding to play along just to see if it would get her off my back, I stepped into her shadow and trailed behind. She led us over to a garage door, impaled by a massive dent in the middle that I could only guess was from a car of some sort, and sniffled sadly before pressing the button to open the door. It got jammed halfway up from the dent, but it was more than enough room for us to crawl underneath.

So… that herd of walkers? It seemed that they had all invited their friends to the party. A bunch of them had finally found a way to bust through a part of the fence, mostly just by having a large group of them leaning on top of it until it finally gave out under the combined weight. This easily had to be the biggest clusterfuck I had ever seen, but if the girl was feeling afraid, she didn't really show it. A perpetual depression had latched onto her face, it looked like, and although it was difficult to tell with all the crap she had on her, I could tell that she had been crying at some point. Hopefully her tears wouldn't wash her camouflage away.

I don't know exactly what it was that caused me to relent, but after biting my lip for a couple of seconds and mulling it over, I internally groaned and nudged her in the shoulder. "Stay close," I tell her, watching her shiver a little as a handful of walkers brush past us. "Don't make any noise to draw their attention. If you fall behind, I can't come back for you."

That warning seemed to frighten her a little bit as she widened her eyes, but after a moment's realization, she gulped and nodded her head. A pair of steely, golden eyes stared back at me with the will to get through this; to survive. She may have had the body of a little girl, but something about the way she was going at this, I was starting to think…

Hmph. Well, we'd have to make it out of here first to be sure about that. Pulling this kind of shit was a _huge_ risk. I had no idea of who she was or how she would react to something like this, but if she so much as made even a little bit of a fuss while we were out here, there'd be hell to pay.

"And for crying out loud, _walk_ ," I added sarcastically, starting my trek through the parking lot as the girl followed behind. "Act like you belong, and you _will_ belong."

Something told me that I wouldn't have to remind her of that.


	2. Hesitance

"Why are you still following me?"

The question left my mouth before I could reel it back in, being the first words spoken between us for nearly three hours. Evidently, the girl hadn't noticed up until then, because with a little jolt she looked up at me, the brim of her blue and white ball cap shielding the top of her eyes as I glanced (more like glared) over my shoulder. I don't think she got the memo that this was not, _definitely_ not, going to be a long-term arrangement. We weren't friends, we weren't even acquaintances. I honestly didn't even know why I bothered helping her get through that herd. Evidently, from how she was dissecting that walker back in that room, she could handle herself decently enough anyways.

We could've gone our separate ways the second that we were in the clear. And honestly, I was getting a little annoyed. I didn't want to be anchored down to some random kid that I happened to bump into on a limb.

Saying nothing, the girl shrugged her shoulders and turned her head to the side, continuing to trail behind at a comfortable distance as I rolled my eyes and sighed irritably. What was her deal? Christ, was the girl deaf or something? Here I was thinking that _I_ didn't talk a whole lot, and then along comes Little Miss Sunshine over here to snatch my title out from under me.

Seriously, why couldn't she just… just… I don't know. Go away, maybe?

Silence was one thing that I was more than used to on a daily basis, but this one sucked. It sucked ass. It was the awkward, heavy burden silence that I used to loathe whenever I'd have to get picked up from some dingy bar downtown by my parents and spend the entire car ride silently begging for them not to ask any questions about what I'd been doing that night. It was uneasy and uncomfortable, and I wanted it to stop.

Once the irritation started to set in, it would be nearly impossible to remove it from my system. This couldn't continue. The kid had to go one way or another, as I definitely wasn't in the mood for babysitting and, in case it wasn't obvious enough already, I worked better alone. At least on paper, that is. Maybe I did have a bit of an itch to scratch in the people department, and had grown kind of bitter over the past few months over the things that were going wrong; with the things I had seen and been through.

But I wasn't ready for a travelling companion, that much I knew for sure. And so, as I spotted the tree line that lead to my makeshift campsite just a little ways away, I finally got the nerve to turn around again and fully face her for the first time since Howe's. "Let me make this perfectly clear," I started coldly, forcing my abrasive attitude to overpower my weird desire to swap stories with the girl, "I don't need you wandering behind me like this, okay? I don't know what you think this is," I pointed between the two of us, "but it's not a partnership. I'm not out here to give you any handouts. So… uh, yeah. Are you… do you get that?"

I had started to trail off for a second at the end there as I noticed it. The kid had covered it up pretty well with her long-sleeved shirt, but I could spot the markings of some kind of branding near her collarbone. It was a deep, deep red marking that looked like it had just started to scab over, but boy, did it ever look painful.

Noticing where my eyes were lingering, the girl instantly tensed up and pulled her collar even higher, trying her best to draw attention away from it but failing horribly. There were so many questions buzzing around in my head now, most of them revolving around what the hell happened back at Howe's with everything, but I bit my tongue and looked over her shoulder to see a walker stumbling towards us. "Great," I mumbled sarcastically, getting my hunting knife ready again as I marched around her. "Gimme a sec, ok? Just… head up that hill over there. I'll meet you up top."

"…okay."

Shocked that words had actually just come out of her mouth, I shoved the walker into a bush as it toppled onto its back and got caught in some of the branches. "So… you're not deaf, then?" I quizzically asked, frowning a little as she shook her head. "Well then… all that back there… _Gah_ , why didn't you say anything?!"

"I just…" she trailed off, "didn't feel like it."

Unable to believe the nerve of this kid, I tucked my frustration away and instead turned that energy into dealing with the walker I had neglected. This was definitely not going to work out. I could already tell that she'd started to develop some of that infamous teenage snark that, although I too had a reputation for back in the day, now I had absolutely no patience to wade through.

Before I could finish the dude off, though, I was interrupted by that same voice.

"Wait!" she cried out, stepping up beside me as she frowned at the walker. "Let… let me do it," she insisted with that stoic look she'd been garnering for the past few hours. "Please?"

Honestly, I wasn't sure if I'd recently been knocked over the head and hadn't even noticed that my brain had gotten scrambled inside of my skull. Was everything going backwards or something?

"Wh-wha-?"

"Just…" she cut off with a grunt, pulling out her hatchet and shimmying in between a pair of trees to get to the other side of the bush. Watching her go about as she faced her target, lined up the swing and swiftly brought it down brought me to a stark realization. None of this was new to the girl. She'd done this before, and she knew the basics of how to keep on going out here. I imagined that she wasn't just some scared, little kid with no potential to make it – with the right amount of coaching, she could turn into something more.

So many thoughts today… I struggled for a while as my head battled itself over what my eyes were trying to tell me, and, albeit slowly, maybe I was starting to come around. She didn't look like the vicious sort, despite evidence to the contrary as she moved the hatchet back and forth to try and dislodge it from the walker's skull.

But she definitely had the look – one who had seen too much, been traumatized over the last couple of years and had just barely climbed out the other side. That's usually the one that would stare back at me in a reflection from the water or a shattered mirror. I couldn't remember ever seeing a kid acting like this, and it was kind of a scary thought. If she could handle this shit _now_ , just imagine what it might be like when she got older.

 _If_ , she got older, that is.

When the hatchet was successfully removed, with the girl huffing and puffing as she sheepishly looked back over towards me, I breathed deeply through my nose and nudged back towards the hill. "C'mon, then," I ushered, starting back towards the campsite as a flock of crows soared overhead.

Yep. I called it. What a weird day it'd been so far.

* * *

"Home sweet home," I muttered sarcastically, placing the bag down and rummaging through the collection as the girl looked around. It didn't take her long to do, seeing's how my "campsite" consisted of only a little nest-looking thing I had created out of random pieces of grass, weeds and soft-covered sticks to use as a makeshift pillow. I used to use a tent that was only big enough for a child to fully fit in, but the thing had been pretty ratty and ripped even before I had picked it up, and with all the hassle of having to fold it back up for travelling and then unfolding it when I settled down, I figured I'd just leave it for the next person to use.

That was it. Literally. I had started digging in the dirt a little bit to try and turn the plot of land into a bunker of sorts, but I hadn't gotten around to finishing it yet. The rest was literally just nature taking its course. Rainwater would occasionally collect in a puddle on the side of the road, but thankfully there was a creek a little ways away so that I didn't have to resort to drinking dirt half the time. I'd wake up with the sun dawning through the tree line, go out scavenging for about an hour or two, grab what I could carry with me, and then head back with my haul. I'd learned to treat squirrels as a delicacy a long time ago, but the occasional buck would come alongside the creek to grab a sip, as long as it managed to avoid the walkers.

One day stood out in particular where I had waited almost six hours for a deer – legs cramped to shit, stomach growling so loudly I was surprised half of the state couldn't tell where I was. I was limited to the weapons I could use, not having any sort of hunting rifle to claim as my own, but a pistol was usually all I needed. I couldn't tell you how pissed I was when the prized doe had scattered away after I shot it in the neck, but thankfully the blood loss had kicked in pretty quickly after striking that blow, and my catch now stood half-skinned in a little cubby-hole I had dug out for it earlier with my own two hands.

Well, it _was_ anyways, because apparently something had been around here recently and spoiled my hard-earned meal. All that was left now was bloody bits of fur and a rib cage with only little nibbles of fat left sticking off the bone. Fucking walkers! They ruin everything they touch!

"This should do for now…" I mentioned, more so to myself than to the girl standing nearby. I turned my head over my shoulder and figured that she'd at least want a piece of the action. "You hungry?" I questioned, holding a couple of the vegetables out towards her as she started eyeing it cautiously. Her gaze kept going back and forth between the food and me, and for a while I couldn't understand what the problem was. Was she not hungry right then, or…?

And once it clicked, I literally looked over as if she had lost her damn mind.

"Are you kidding me…?" I cut myself off, grunting bitterly as she lowered her eyes to the ground. "What kind of monster do you think I am? I literally just yanked these out of the bag! Do you seriously think I'd _poison you?!_ "

It actually kind of hurt to realize that she'd think that way about me, even though technically she was still a complete stranger. Admittedly, our first encounter hadn't been the best, and she looked as though she'd been recently put through ten different kinds of hell in a matter of hours, and even though it was probably smart of her not to trust me at first glance, I was still a little miffed.

Giving up on the whole prospect altogether, I dropped the bag to the side and shrugged my shoulders. "Suit yourself, then. Starve, for all I care," I muttered before unzipping my coat and placing it gingerly on the hay pile beside me; not wanting to get it mucked up as I reached into the cubby hole. Dammit… they really messed my dinner up something fierce, couldn't even leave the scraps behind for me to chew on every now and again. What I wouldn't have given for some good, old-fashioned chicken right then… I used to make the most amazing grilled chicken sandwiches with lettuce, tomato, ceasar dressing and shredded cheese. A minute or two in the microwave afterwards, and the thing would end up just melting in your mouth.

But this wasn't just about the food. If the walkers could scope out a dead carcass hidden away like this so easily, then I for sure was easy pickings out here. This place was no longer safe, even with the awesome vantage point and access to the dirt road so close by. Shit – I really wasn't in the mood to travel again, not without a little bit of rest first.

Jolting my hand back as some kind of… I dunno, a mole or a raccoon or something… hissed at me from its hiding spot in behind the deer, I fell back and let my hands fall lazily into my lap. This had really deflated my tires today. The motivation had leaked out and was steadily running dry as the animal scurried back into the hole. Great. I didn't realize that the place was already occupied before I arrived here. Now I was just a total squatter.

Perking my ears up a bit as I heard a light ruffling sound coming from behind me, I turned towards the girl and raised my eyebrow. Huh. Looks as though she couldn't stay staring at the grub for long, not with how much her stomach was grumbling over there. With the brim of her hat covering most of her eyes, I was only able to watch as she cleared her throat and silently asked if she could have some.

Weird kid. I already gave her permission a little while ago, but she still wouldn't dig her hand into the bag. She probably thought her arm would come off if she even dared to try helping herself…

Brushing any witty comebacks aside for the sake of not making this situation any more awkward than it needed to be, I handed her a couple of the vegetables as she abruptly sat down and started devouring the food as if it was her last meal on earth. I couldn't help but wonder just how long she'd gone without a proper meal… _proper_ being a relative term, these days.

By the time she had finished, wiping some of the residue off her face with the back of her sleeve, the girl darted her gaze towards the tree line to avoid making eye contact. "…thank you…" she mumbled graciously, a slight blush of embarrassment adorning her cheeks as I looked at her quizzically.

Yep. Weird kid, definitely.

Originally, I really hadn't planned on getting to know her. I mean, what would the point have been, right? She'd just get injured or killed in a million different ways like everyone else, and we would've missed out on the _wonderful, chatty and thoroughly invigorating_ discussion we'd been having ever since we escaped from Howe's.

But the more that I looked at her, the more curious I became. I didn't think I'd meet anybody who was less talkative than me, and for whatever reason, this girl was starting to become the locus of my attention. The timid way she presented herself, the way she'd constantly be looking over her shoulder to check if anybody was following us, the way she'd scrunch up her face into a scowl whenever we encountered any walkers… This just _screamed_ mysterious. And I wanted to crack the enigma somehow.

She wouldn't sit down even when I sat across from her against the food bag, hoping to god that I didn't squish any of the fruit inside as I laid my legs out flat against the dirt. " _Soooo…_ " I drawled out, emphasizing the "o" as it rolled off my tongue. Pondering what my first question would be, I drummed my fingers upon my thigh. Better start with the basics, I guess. "You got a name there, kid?" I asked as she studied the ground with interest. I tried to tilt my head to see what all the hesitation was about with her, and opened my mouth again as I was about to go further, but she suddenly beat me to it.

"Cle-" she stuttered, making some weird clicking noise in her throat as she tried again. "Clementine…"

Clementine. Hmm. The name rolled around in my mouth a few times as I played a little pattern game in my head to remember it. I used to do this sort of thing when I was about her age, always having thought it important to remember the few people who would actually try to talk to me back at school. The assholes were usually the ones whose names I had purposely forgotten, and believe me, there were a _lot_ of 'em. But I treasured my friends like they were fucking diamonds. Haven't had as much reason to do so these past few years, however.

Gotta say though, "Clementine" was a new one to me. Kinda strange that someone's parents would name their child after a fruit, but whatever. Somehow, it seemed fitting. She definitely wasn't your average kid to begin with.

Nodding in acceptance, I shivered a little as a cool wind chilled me to the bone, and I abruptly started putting my jacket back on. "Well, that's a start," I said, sliding my arms into the sleeves and humming comfily as I felt its warm embrace. Looking back up to find her twirling her foot absentmindedly in the dirt, I sighed exhaustedly. "What are you acting all antsy for? Just chill. I'm not gonna bite," I tried joking, my chuckle dying short as I cringed at my poor choice of words. Somehow, though, it seemed to get through to her as, sure enough, Clementine cautiously sat down and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Not so scary, huh?" I quirked, feeling a strange warmth inside my chest as I saw a little bit of a smirk pulling at the corner of her lips.

Wow. Maybe there _was_ some hope here after all. I mean, if I could get Debbie Downer over here to crack a grin every now and again, imagine what could happen if I –

….no. I… I couldn't. Couldn't let myself fall for it again, not this shit. I was giving in too easily, letting my guard down in the process. How fucking desperate did I have to be… all she gave me was her goddamn name, for crying out loud, and here I was, blubbering like a toddler figuring out how to speak for the first time…

"…what's _your_ name?" she then inquired as I stalled for a second. _Crap_ , I thought to myself with a grimace, _I forgot that introductions go_ _ **both**_ _ways._

Pulling out some of the ammunition I picked up from Howe's into my hand and slotting them into the magazine of my pistol, I tilted the weapon back and forth to examine its condition. "…Jane," I grunted dismissively, tying the bag back up as I itched at my scalp.

Fighting a raging war inside my head where I'm sure I was losing, I shut my eyes and cut myself off before I could say anymore. Clementine seemed to be puzzled by my behavior, a fair notion to have in this case, and I found myself standing up without my full consent. My head was buzzing like a swarm of killer bees.

I needed to get out of there. Maybe clear the air for a little bit, give me a chance to sort out my priorities.

"Just… stay here for a while. I'll be back in a couple of hours," I hastily excused myself, zipping up the windbreaker to about halfway up my ribcage and checking that I had my weapons at the ready.

"Wh-what?" she blubbered as I whizzed by, not stopping to make conversation. "Where are you going?"

"…out."

"That's not very helpful…"

"Does it matter? Just out for a walk, I'll be nearby," I told her, figuring that I'd try to get the attention back off of me. "And Clementine," I hollered back, spinning around and walking backwards a tad as I nearly tripped over an exposed tree root in the middle of the leave-riddled forest floor, "try not to eat all the rations while I'm gone, yeah?"

* * *

There was something to be said about wandering alone in the woods. Grasses growing up to your shins, mushrooms sprouting out of fallen logs and dead trees, birds calling out into the air in a battle to see who could call out the loudest and the longest... all of it somehow came together in a peaceful coexistence. A crazy, mashed-up, colossal mix-and-match, but it worked somehow. I usually felt more peace taking a stroll through the forest than I could have ever dreamed of getting before the walkers came along.

And yet, today especially, that peace was nowhere to be found. It really wasn't hard to understand why – the little munchkin I left back at the camp sort of put a nail in my 'every Jane for herself' kind of plan.

This sucked. My brain was going into overdrive telling me that keeping her around went against everything that I'd worked for over the past few months. I had a system going, and it was working wonders. No drama, no fuss, just me and my own thoughts to take care of.

My gut, however, was more open to the idea of having a little survivor tagging alongside me though. She seemed pretty tough, and although there may have been a little more baggage carried along than I'd have liked, so far she didn't seem to be causing too many problems. I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatched, though. I needed to figure out where I stood on the matter.

I hadn't really meant to come out this way, passing by a faded sign for some historical-looking site called Parker's Run as I crouched in behind an overturned picnic table. But this was one of the few places around that I hadn't yet explored, and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't overlooking anything important. I'd gotten a bit of a streak going with my first haul, so I figured I might as well try to keep it going while it lasted.

Having felt more refreshed after stopping by the river nearby and splashed some water on my face, I kept my eyes on red alert as I scoped out the area. The coast was clear so far, but with the state that this place was looking in, I wasn't really as confident that it would be worth the trip. Garbage littered the pavement as little blades of grass poked out in between the cracks, with several downed walkers lying on their stomachs with the blood stains beside their heads. They looked pretty fresh to me, which meant that somebody had been here. Recently, too.

Choosing to have my pistol out instead of my knife this time, figuring that it wouldn't really be the walkers I'd have to contend with in a place like this, I carefully walked towards what appeared to be some kind of bulletin board filled to the brim with evacuation notices, missing person posters and so on. All of it covered up the fact charts underneath that talked about the historical site, and I sighed sadly as I gazed upon some of the faces on the posters. A bunch of families, some elderly-looking couples, an individual child or two… there's no way they were ever found, and if they were, they probably weren't how their loved ones remembered them.

I knew that feeling pretty well by that point. Families didn't last out here.

Tracing my index finger along a map of the park, I decided to try my hand at the gift shop that was only a little ways away. It had to be a better prospect than the museum, and other than the little rest stop I was at now, labelled "YOU ARE HERE" on the map as I headed out, there really weren't any other options anyways.

 _Sigh_ … I could feel a headache coming on. No matter the surroundings, I couldn't stop thinking about Clementine back at the camp. I was mentally kicking myself for not bringing one of those walkie-talkies I had snatched from the hardware store. At best, it could've been useful in a pinch. Truthfully, it probably would've at least given me a little peace of mind.

But _why_ , though? That was what I didn't understand. Why did I want this, why was she sticking around, why did I care? It made no sense. Clementine was _nothing_ to me, and yet somehow, now that she was here, I didn't really want her to leave. We hadn't even talked yet, not really, but somehow, knowing that there was somebody waiting for me back at my camp…

" _Blech_ ," I spit, wandering through the maze-like pathway surrounded by a layer of brick walls as I checked my corners. Mulling over it like this was making my head spin. I couldn't keep doing this to myself – one fucking day of having somebody following me around, and now suddenly I was ass over tea kettle?

No, fuck that. This was it. My mind was made up. As soon as I'd get back to camp, I'd bid my goodbye, hand her a few of the vegetables for good measure, and send her on her way. I couldn't deal with all of these conflicting thoughts anymore. Clementine was a distraction, and distractions almost certainly would lead to my untimely death. I wouldn't let that girl hold me down.

This was for the best… Yeah, sure it was.

* * *

About half an hour had passed by as I stared at my arch nemesis of the day – a stupid lock to the stupid gift shop that just wouldn't open, no matter how much I tried to pick it. The metal had been rusted to shit, and although the nail file I had found was working its magic – after all, versatility was _not_ overrated – I was starting to think that this was just a waste of time. The only thing that looked at all pleasing was a half-empty water cooler sitting lopsided in the corner that rolled around every time the wind came through, as well as some blankets and a beaten-up metal bowl with a rag sitting inside of it. I tried to avoid looking at the massive pile of blood sitting on the hardwood floor surrounding all of the stuff, and after another three solid attempts at picking it and one cut finger later, I was about ready to call it quits. Whatever. The people here before definitely had a hand in the mess inside of this gift shop, and the smell alone was making me gag like crazy.

Enough time had passed since I last left Clementine anyways, and although I wasn't good at all of that mushy shit, I was hopeful that parting ways would go over pretty smoothly. I'd just have to lay down the law; that this was for the best, and that we'd be better off going our separate ways. Hey, I was doing her a courtesy here! Better than the alternative – just abandoning her without a word was a lot more cruel than I'd have wanted if the roles were reversed. Besides, she could find her own way. Somehow.

Going over all the possibilities in my head, I put the nail file into my back pocket and stretched out the kinks in my back. I was definitely gonna regret being hunched over like this when I woke up in the morning, but as I started walking back down the stairs to start retracing my steps to the campsite, I immediately froze. Wide-eyed and pale-faced, I found my legs again as I quickly darted back up, into the only room without a gate and hid behind one of the garbage cans. Clutching the pistol tightly to my chest, I gritted my teeth as I considered my options. "Shit…" I whispered, realizing that the group of people heading towards my exact location definitely _weren't_ walkers. The fact that they were holding guns as well as carrying a woman on some sort of make-shift stretcher was proof enough. Bolting it now would only sound the alarm, so I chose to stay as quiet as possible and wait for an opening.

But boy would that be a long wait.

"Get movin'! Up the stairs, now!" came a thickly-coated southern twang as I heard the floorboards start to buckle and shake. _Thump-thump-thump._

Jesus, this was terrifying.

A low, rumbling chuckle followed suit as somebody was thrown to the floor just a few feet away from my hiding spot. I darted out of sight just as the guy turned painfully onto his side, but I was pretty sure he caught a quick glimpse of me as I did so. Fuck!

"Easy, Troy, easy," said the deep voice from earlier, sounding as though the man had inhaled one too many cigarettes in his day. "They're not going anywhere. We've made sure of that. Now then," he continued as the guy on the floor was roughly dragged up by his collar and tossed to the railing. The victim in question had soft, brown eyes to match his wavy hair, with a light stubble adorning his chin as he, thankfully, was keeping silent about seeing me for the moment. It didn't stop him from glancing over towards the garbage can though, and as he did so, the man I could only presume was Troy had clocked him with a right hook over the side of his head before shoving him towards one of the support beams. "Where's our second group? Tavia should've been back with those ingrates a while ago."

"Lemme radio 'em," Troy suggested after leaving his victim to wince in pain. I didn't get the feeling that these guys were the friendly sort. "Tavia, you there? Bill wants a word," he said, and most of the rest of their conversation was drowned out as more of their group was brought – more like _dragged_ – either up top at the observation deck, or down on the ground level.

Figuring that it was either now or never, I spotted a doorway at the bottom of the deck that more than likely lead out to the relative safety of the woods. I crouched down, took a few steps towards the railing, prepared to jump, and –

"H-hey…" whined the dumbass that had been hit earlier as sent a glare that he couldn't see. "Don't go… H-help… please…"

So much for keeping silent. I jumped off the railing and out of sight to the stones below just in the nick of time, for almost as soon as he said those words, he was face to face with the grizzly man that I had heard before. The idiot almost blew my cover!

Although, I realized with a frown, that I was likely about to just walk away from some sort of kidnapping or hostage situation here. The guilt was making my stomach churn as I ever so quietly inched the door open and started heading outside.

"Oh Lukey-boy, I think you've lost your marbles, there," the man I guessed was Bill stated. Even though I couldn't see him, I could tell that the guy had an air of superiority about him just by the way he was addressing people. Douchebags usually ended up that way. "Did you take one too many hits to the old noggin there? Well, I'd normally be more than happy to give you something to take your mind off of it, but you see here," he jeered, "you and your little crew _really_ dropped the ball on this one. Didn't you, Luke? And I really don't like to be jerked around."

"They shouldn't be much longer," Troy relayed back as I glued my back to the brick wall outside to avoid any further outbursts like that. "I'm guessin' they were combin' through that museum a ways back, prob'ly got 'em rootin' through them collectibles and shit."

"Sooner rather than later," Bill mentioned as, sure enough, another group of survivors was lead along like a puppet on a string towards the observation deck. This group looked to be a little bit bigger from what I had anticipated, though it was clear from their faces that they weren't together by choice. Many of them looked like they had just been thrown into a boxing ring, a large majority with red-rimmed eyes from crying. Some of them were just mindlessly staring off into space, garnering the same look that I had seen on my sister several times before. "And here we are! The rest of our merry, little band of misfits! I trust they didn't give you too much trouble, Tavia?"

"Caught a couple of them trying to get away," she remarked as I held my breath. One of their men with a machine gun sat down at the picnic table closest to where I was sitting, and I tried to shuffle further back along the wall. "But it's all settled now. They won't be trying that again."

" _Tsk-tsk-tsk_ , fellas, I thought we sorted this shit out already? Cutting and running is _not_ the way to make amends," he strode around the captives, his hands at the sides of his burly, brown winter coat with a fur-plated hood matching his thick, slightly-greying hair. I still couldn't see his face, not that I wanted to pop out and surprise everyone, but I was a little curious to see what this was all about.

Bandit hold-ups never went this way. It was almost always a "give me your shit or we'll kill every one of you" type of deal, but this seemed too coordinated. It was almost as if I had just interrupted a town hall meeting involving one intimidating mayor and a bunch of his underlings, but he hadn't made any real demands yet.

Finding myself kind of drawn to the action, I quickly tiptoed from my hiding spot when nobody was looking over behind some large trees a dozen feet away. There was nothing I could do to help these guys, not that I really had an obligation to in the first place, but I froze when Bill had finally turned around to address some of the hostages. Half of his left eyeball was completely gone, along with a chunk of his orbital bone as well as a thick layer of skin. The sight of some of his bones sticking out, still dripping a bit of blood onto his parka, made me uneasy as I kept my gun held out in front of me.

 _This is stupid,_ I told myself, trying to force myself to flee. _What are you still doing here? Go back through the woods and get back to camp! These people don't matter at all! Just go!_

"Look at this fucking place…" he continued to rant, slowly spinning in a circle as if he was the king of the world. "You guys have any idea why we're out here now? Why so much of our community, our friends _and_ yours are dead? No… I doubt it's really sunken in yet," he mocked, kneeling in front of a Hispanic man and poking him right in the nose. "You. All of you. Every single one of you sacks of dog shit are responsible for the sorry state we're in. And who knows, Carlos? Maybe if all of you hadn't decided to run away in the middle of the night like a bunch of pussies, then your daughter wouldn't have – "

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

 _BANG!_

"OH MY GOD! NICK!"

So much commotion, so much noise…

"Troy, are you _trying_ to bring the herd back towards us? Hmm?" Bill asked as a couple of the other hostages, including that Luke guy who came bounding down the stairs, tried to get to Nick as he groaned in intense amounts of pain. A bullet had been lodged through the guy's knee cap, courtesy of a trigger-happy Troy, who looked now as if he'd been caught breaking a glass by his parents. "Keep it calm, alright? We're reasonable people here. And everyone's emotions are surely running high."

"Y-yeah… sure thing, Bill…"

Nodding in understanding and patting Troy on the shoulder, Bill glanced at Nick and then finally back to Carlos. "As the resident doctor in the house, I suggest you patch him up. Unless of course you've gotten rusty, in which case… well," he smirked, turning towards another pair of people to the right of Carlos, "you know what happens to people who can't contribute."

The doctor in question looked as though his soul had been shattered, not surprising given what the guy was implying. I guessed that these guys had been caught up in the herd somewhere, too. They couldn't have been that far behind me.

I'd had enough sightseeing for the day, and made up my mind right away that getting the fuck out of here would be a solid choice. Even with Howe's still ripe for the picking, I wasn't going to take my chances with these psychopaths.

But just as I was about to leave, a chilling, low, steely voice interrupted my chain of thought.

"There's nothing to tell…" came the voice of a bearded man in a dark green jacket and orange fishing hat. Sitting beside him was a pretty Indian woman with a nose ring and a scared expression on her face. I guessed that whatever Bill had asked must've struck a nerve in the man, since he was gritting his teeth in a seething, barely-controlled rage as he glowered at their captor. "And even if I did, I wouldn't say shit."

"So I figured," Bill surmised with a bitter, humorless bark of a laugh. With a sigh, he placed his hands into his coat pockets and arched an eyebrow. "You sure you don't want to do what I asked? To tell me where that little shithead is? Because I can promise that it won't be – "

"Fuck. You."

"…didn't have to go down this way, you know. Like I said earlier, I've been _more_ than fair to you guys, after the shit you pulled," he announced, motioning for Tavia to hand him a knife that looked eerily similar to the one I was carrying around. As soon as the handle found its way into Bill's outstretched palm, I gulped; knowing what would come next. The defiant one would always get axed first – cutting off the head before the rest of the body could grow, so to speak. I wasn't looking forward to the aftermath. Bill bent down in front of the man, smiled to reveal his toothy grin, and swatted the man's hat off of his head.

I thought he was going to end the guy right there, but this whole thing hadn't been going in the direction I thought ever since they strolled over here.

"You know, Kenneth, I admire your spirit. I really do. It's gotta take someone with some serious kahunas to try and say that to me. You and that kid have gotta be related somehow," Bill went on, his voice taking on a darker tone as the blade of the knife flashed in the mid-day sun. "But this attitude of yours? This insubordination? We can't have that in our ranks. Not anymore. Not out here," he motioned to the surrounding area as I accidentally dropped my gun to the ground. Hearing the twigs snap and the leaves crumple upon impact, I flinched and quickly picked it up, moving to the right as quickly and as silently as I could just as Bill whirled around.

"Mike, Vince, go check it out. Now!" he commanded, his tone not giving out any real options for them as I dove to my stomach and cursed myself for not getting out of here earlier. "You see that though, Kenny? It's called commanding respect. Mike did his time in the pen, and earned his position with no problems. But you fuckers? Hmph, couldn't stand having to wait in there for a couple more weeks to fill up your probationary period. Patience isn't exactly your strongest virtue, is it?"

Breathing ragged and palms sweaty, I spit out some of the dirt and crawled over towards a set of sharp rocks leading down towards a small, stream-like section of the river. There was a bridge right next to it, and I rolled over to place myself underneath it; knife at the ready as I swore under my breath. "Shit, shit, shit…" I whispered, watching as Vince picked up the pistol I had dropped and hurried back over to the group. Mike looked like he wanted to be anywhere else, and as he closed his eyes and shook his head, I could see him rubbing a hand over his face as a quiet sob shuddered his body.

"Is she out there? Huh? Is she trying to come back for round two?!" Bill demanded, grabbing Kenny roughly by the collar and shaking him as the bearded man spit in his face. Wiping the saliva off of his chin, Bill shook his head gradually and laughed again. "Look… I hate violence. I really do. It's tedious, it's repetitive, it hurts, but unfortunately it gets things done."

The woman next to him started bawling and shouting out "no" in between her hiccups, and all the rest of their group could do was watch as Bill gripped the knife tightly in his hand.

"I'm gonna fucking break you," Bill snarled venomously, not missing a beat as he slowly nicked Kenny's cheek with the blade. It was hard to see from over here, but I could tell there was a bit of blood dripping down the man's cheek as Kenny winced from the pain.

"Oh god, please don't do this! Kenny… Kenny… Don't kill him!" came the wails of the woman beside him, practically bent over backwards in hysterics as she begged for Bill to spare his life. Judging from the reaction, I gathered that the two of them were together in some way.

Slowly turning his gaze towards said woman, Bill grinned and pulled the knife away from Kenny's face. "Oh darling," he cooed, taking his hand and brushing a few locks of dark hair away from her face. "Who said anything about killing _him?_ "

Taking off in the chaos that followed, I turned my head away quickly as Bill stabbed her in the heart; twisting the blade in her chest for only a second before yanking it out and slashing her throat with a quick strike across. I didn't want to listen to her gargle on and choke on her own blood as it started to pool, and I tripped on a few of the stones as I heard one last final cry before booking it into the woods.

" _SARITA!"_


	3. Complicated

It felt like I had Parkinson's as I reached into the bag, shaking everything in between my fingers so much that a couple of the blueberries had fallen onto the dirt beside my boot. The five second rule was something I heavily believed in, but right then I couldn't be bothered to pick them back up. Something told me that they wouldn't have tasted as sweet today anyways.

"Um…" started Clementine, ever so careful not to mince her words, "are… are you okay?"

Everything was a blur. The sky seemed darker, but there wasn't a cloud in sight for miles in any direction, and the air seemed heavier as I came across the remaining bullet shells resting in the opened box. Useless now, it seemed, since I had dropped my gun and let those… those… _maniacs_ … get their dirty mitts on it. I had been there. I was a witness, a loose end to be tied up. Someone had seen me.

 _Someone saw me. That "Luke" guy. They knew someone was out there with them. Watching them._

Dammit, this was _not_ how my day was supposed to go. Frowning deeply, I ignored the girl as she grew even more worried. I couldn't imagine what I must've looked like, running back here like I was being hunted like a wild animal. For all I knew, that was already happening. Luke seemed pretty squeamish under Bill's gaze, and if he put the pressure on, he'd talk. Some mystery woman out in the wilderness? Yeah, that'd stir up the paranoia pot something fierce, especially with the tensions so palpable after Bill had –

"There was a walker who came by, but I don't think it saw me," she went on with a shrug. I was too caught up in my own head to notice her social walls had been torn down a little bit since I left. "You were gone for a long while…"

I knew it. I knew that people were nothing but trouble. I never should've headed over to Fucksville, USA and tried to get the goddamn gift shop opened. Nobody had followed me yet, but there was no telling exactly what might've gone down back there. My back was turned when I made my exit.

"Jane?"

"I'm leaving."

Stunned was probably the first word that came to mind when I saw her reaction. Stunned, and a little bit of worry at my abrupt decision to leave this place behind. I could tell that she wasn't really the type to just up and go on a whim, but I didn't have time to really explain myself. I thought I would've before, but now…

 _Sigh_ … why did nothing ever, EVER, go the way I planned it to?

Concern flashing over her troubled, young face, likely having seen people leave her before, Clementine frowned as I dropped a couple of the bullets back into the sack. I dunno, I guess I could try _throwing them_ at the walkers. "But – " she stammered as I shook my head and cut her off.

"It'll be easier this way. For the both of us," I added with a shrug, standing up with the bag strewn over my shoulder and glancing downwards. I hadn't really noticed just how short the girl was until now, but at the moment I felt like the opposite could've been true. My throat was clenching as I kept up the explanation. "Trust me, this is a better idea."

"For _you_ maybe!" she cried out as I widened my eyes a bit. Woah, wasn't expecting that to come out of her. "I… I don't understand! Why do you want to go so badly? Do you like, hate me or something?"

"What? No! It's not that! Just…" I huffed out with a little grunt, digging one of my heels in the dirt as I bit my lip. "…it'll be simpler if we're both on our own. You… you're a smart kid, I can tell. You'd be able to make it. Might take a little time, but eventually you'd see that I'm right."

But Clementine didn't seem to buy that answer, unfortunately. She had had other ideas, it seemed, and as I watched her shut her eyes tightly and shake her head in denial, I verbally wondered what she was on about this time. I just witnessed her take down a walker using nothing but a rusty hatchet, and somehow she was _doubting_ herself?

When she didn't respond to that right away, I took it as the little girl giving in, and I wasn't about to spoil the opportunity. " _Riiight_ ," I awkwardly mentioned, moving past her as I handed out a little bit of the food as a sort of parting gift. "Look… don't you have a family out there someplace? Or friends, maybe? They've gotta be out looking for ya – better to go searching for 'em than to twiddle your thumbs around here," I wearily suggested, missing the silent cues as she stared painfully at the hay pile I created earlier. Pointing down the winding road, I offered some last minute advice as to what her next move could be before I headed out to… wherever. I wasn't really too keen on making any pit stops along the way today, but even I could admit that my next destination was eluding me.

"Just keep heading down that road. There should be a town along the way, or at least a village or something," I shrugged as she continued to stare at the dirt. "You know the score, though. Just keep an eye out for other walkers and… _people_ …" I shuddered with a snarl, "and you should be fine."

"…hey, Jane?"

Sighing in annoyance at her insistent need to get more out of me, sort of like beating a dead horse, I turned around slightly and held my hands out at my sides. "What? I already told you, I'm not changing my mind," I told her curtly, a little creeped out as she stared blankly at the spot I had been before. I had very little time to try and get away from this place, and so far the incessant questions were really cutting it short.

With her voice hoarse and barely above a whisper, Clementine dropped her hatchet onto the hay pile and suddenly sat down, cross-legged in the dirt as she absentmindedly fiddled with some sticks to play with. "If you didn't want me around," she finally turned to me and said, her eyes as hollow as ever, "then why did you help me back there?"

Apparently it was my turn to be frazzled, as if I hadn't already been put through the ringer earlier today. Shit. Silent treatments were one thing, but guilt trips? This kid had fucking _guilt trips_ up her sleeve now, too? Because if she did, Clementine was definitely laying it on thick.

But I had to strong here. I had to have the stronger will. And although I was trying to justify to myself that I was still being the adult in this instance, banking on how the girl decided to take an impromptu date in the sand for no apparent reason that my already convoluted brain could think of, I couldn't help it when my lips pursed indignantly. "This isn't up for debate," I reminded her as once again she didn't say a word. The nerve of that little…! "What did you want me to do then, huh? Just leave you there to be eaten alive? You didn't seem to mind getting out of that hardware store after chopping up that walker into itty, bitty pieces!"

Clementine traced the beginnings of some kind of stick figure in the dirt as she continued to act as if I didn't exist. That only made my frown deepen and cause my hands to clench into fists, but I groaned, shook my head, turned around and stomped off to wherever the fuck it was I was going before. I didn't even care at that point. Anywhere was better than staying and listening to a damn pre-teen giving me this off-and-on again shame session.

The leaves crumpled under my boots as I brushed a tree branch out of my sight, nearly smacking myself right back in the face all the while. This was so stupid! Why would she even ask me something like that, anyways? I wasn't some monster coming around to fuck people over whenever the going got tough… at least, I didn't _think_ I was. Was I? Ugh, I couldn't even tell. Maybe.

But wait a minute, no! That was completely wrong! Okay, so I _did_ come over to Howe's in the first place to get my hands on some last-minute leftover shopping deals courtesy of a horde of walkers, but that wasn't stealing or anything! It's not as if the owners were in a real hurry to come back anyways!

And I so would _not_ have been as cruel as to just ditch someone like that, let alone a kid… even though the thought did cross my mind…

Gah! I felt like pulling my hair out right then. After another few seconds of walking, happening to pass over an old tricycle with the wheels and handlebars all mangled to hell, I stopped and turned my head back towards the treeline. Geez, one little question from Clementine had sent a billion thoughts buzzing through my head, none of which were either satisfying or devoid of a colourful line of profanities. And believe me, I knew a _lot_ of swear words. Seriously. I probably could've written a book.

All the while, my mind kept drifting back to that woman who got killed. Sarita, I think somebody said her name was? Apparently all it took was to try and help the person you cared about in order to get brutally slaughtered these days. One cry to stop and Bill sliced and diced. I couldn't forget the ease with which he did it, either; the callous disregard for anyone who didn't fit under his category of people worth saving.

There had been a few times in the past where, admittedly, I had come close to crossing into that dark territory myself. If I let my mind wander and stew too much, if I let myself get dragged down to my lowest with almost no hope of escaping, my head would just gravitate towards the worst acts imaginable. Killing – it was something you had to do these days, but I never _liked_ doing it. It wasn't something I wanted to do. Thankfully, I had made it a priority to never act on that impulse unless my life was on the line, but I still couldn't believe that others actually _did_.

"Fuck…" I mumbled upon coming to some kind of abandoned, burned-out van that was left to rust after apparently crashing head-first into a rock formation. This didn't look familiar at all. I should've passed by the old birch tree that stood out like a sore thumb by now, with its grey bark all torn to tatters by whatever animal decided to make its mark on the territory over there, but the thing was nowhere in sight.

Biting my lip, I silently fumed as I glanced every which way. I didn't have a GPS super-glued into my arm or anything, or any real map of the surrounding countryside to point me in the right direction. This wasn't a trail, either, so no road signs were out to guide me around, and as my gaze finally landed on the skeletal remains of a walker up ahead, likely implanted into the dirt by that van some time ago, I groaned and turned back around. Like it or not, I'd have to retrace my steps, which meant I would have to second-guess myself and head back to camp again. Back to Clementine.

The kid was like a magnet apparently. I had no real ill-will towards her, but I certainly didn't want to come sulking back and looking as though I wanted to beg for forgiveness, either. The sting of our departure was still sitting on the tip of my tongue, anyways, but the only fire that fueled my determination was knowing, deep down, that I was better than what Clementine was implying. That, coupled with the fact that I was admittedly a stubborn, little prick when I felt it was necessary, drove me forward as my boots got caked in mud with each passing step.

It had maybe been twenty, possibly twenty-five minutes, tops, since I had left her, but as I stormed back to the camp, mouth hanging ajar and ready to add more justifications to keep the ball on my side of the court, I stopped myself when I noticed it. Clementine was _gone_. There was no sign she had even been there aside from the little drawings she had made, faded away with a careful hand as a crude "Sorry" was sketched above the stick figures.

Great. Now I had REALLY fucking done it. Fantastic work, Jane! Not only did you leave the kid to fend for herself, basically shooting her the bird in the process, but then you made her feel like shit even more so than before.

Taking to a light jog as I returned to the camp, I brushed the hay pile out of the way to try and find something to tell me where she might've gone.

If the walkers didn't find her, then that crazy son of a bitch likely would. I hadn't really noticed any kids around in their little group, but from what I could tell, none of those captors were really the parental type anyways. And if she didn't stumble upon them, then it might've been someone else – someone even _worse_ , perhaps. Or maybe it'd be her dying of thirst. Or hunger. Or sleep deprivation. Or fucking… _bears_ , I dunno! She could die in a billion horrible ways, and that would all be on me. I would be responsible for the death of yet another child.

My anger had fizzled out momentarily by the time I finished clearing out the place. Dammit, I had hoped for some sort of clue, like maybe her baseball hat or something similar, but Clementine didn't leave much to go off of. Smart, I realized, to not leave anything behind that would lead somebody back to her, but it didn't do me much good as I tried brushing the hay pile away. Maybe there'd be some footprints in the dirt she had planted in.

I didn't want to leave it like this. Not on that note, at least. Clementine was the first person in a long time who had actually bothered to try and stay with me for a little while, and all I did was act like a total bitch. I knew that I could be a little distant at times, particularly on a day like today, but maybe if I tried explaining myself better without giving _too_ much away, then…

 _Snap!_

I knew the sound of a walker pretty darn well at this point, but I didn't turn around to deal with it right away. It looked as though I wouldn't be staying here for much longer anyways, as I frowned upon noticing that what few tracks there were ended up swaying way off to the left before disappearing into the brush. Clementine had a head start on me, and there was no way I'd be able to find her now. Not that she'd really _want_ me to… The dejected way she was looking after I left was proof enough of that.

"Would you just give me a fucking minute here?" I swore at the undead creature, scowling at it deeply over my shoulder after noticing it get stuck in between two of the pine trees, swiping out at me even though it was still a few yards away. These things were completely mindless, and for some reason I found that more infuriating today than simply being a part of life. These things would be by my side until the day I died, the only company left out in this shitty excuse of a life.

What I wouldn't have given for a rocket ship or something right then. Maybe the moon would have better things to do than to skulk around here with no end goal in sight. Or Mars! Yeah, maybe the Martians would be a little more accommodating, having never seen an Earthling visit their planet before. It could happen – I bet their laser pistols would be a lot more fun, anyways.

For now, though, I'd have to deal with my pesky little friend over here, and so I stood to full height as I trudged over towards him. It looked as though the guy had been killed just a little while ago, but something about him seemed _really_ familiar.

The closer I got, the more recognizable he became. It was that guy from Howe's, the one I almost got caught by. They never said what his name was, though I doubt I would've remembered even if they did. His dirty blonde hair was now marked at the bottom by a thick, dark coating of blood, and the glasses he wore beforehand were nowhere to be seen. I could spot the bite on his neck, plus several others lining his left arm and part of his ear, and I pursed my lips as I started to unsheathe my knife. Guess these guys didn't get out of there alive. Not surprising, really, given how obnoxiously loud they were being upon escaping, but I couldn't say that they deserved a fate like this. Few people ever did.

It was a little difficult to get the jump on him from this angle, but I managed to tilt the blade just right as I jammed it forwards and sliced right through his eyeball; shimmying it around a little to scramble the brain as I cringed at the disgusting sounds it made. It almost felt like I was sticking my fingers in some of the grossest jelly this world had ever seen, and as I tore my weapon out of the guy's skull, watching him hang lifelessly over the edge of the tree, I wiped the metal off on his jacket.

This was hopeless. Clementine had vanished into thin air, and with the sun starting to go down like this, there was no way I'd be willing or able to track her in the dark. The best I could hope for now was that she managed to find a little cave or something to hide in, and even that was a stretch. There was nothing but trees in these woods for miles in almost every direction.

If I found her the next day, lying face-down in the dirt, dead as a doornail, I'm not so sure I could forgive myself. Shitty circumstances happened all the time – that's just the way things were these days. But if somebody were to die from my negligence, or the fact that I could've done something to prevent it? I mean, _fuck_. How would I be able to wake up the next morning?

How could _anyone_?

* * *

Rain seemed to have this odd, eerie way of calming my nerves. Almost every night at my parents' house, back when the only real worry I had to think about was whether Jaime would come barging into my room to demand that I play with her, I'd head out to the backyard during the summer storms. Mom would be smoking out in her car when she thought nobody was looking, so it was one of the only times I'd never get a lecture about something stupid I had done that day. I'd roll my sleeves up, sit out on the concrete steps and let the water droplets pour down on top of me. The massive, twenty-foot high trees we had would rustle in the breeze, and our wind chime would screech out as it'd get tossed back and forth like a swing set, and all the animals – squirrels, birds, raccoons, you name it – would scurry back to their homes.

Not me, though. I'd close my eyes and breathe deeply through my nose; running a hand through my hair to spike it up from Mother Nature's hair gel as it soaked me to the bone. And you know what? I loved every second of it. I thought it was the coolest feeling in the world.

That feeling still hasn't changed per say, but it's more of a hindrance right now with how chilly it's become lately. My leather jacket could block out most of it, but I had to hide under some of the pine trees for a couple of hours to wait for the storm to pass. Mud was starting to form down at the bottom of the hill, and the only entertainment I had to pass the time was watching as a few walkers tried in vain to climb up to catch me; slipping over and falling face-first back into the dirt each time they made an attempt.

There wasn't any sign of Bill's little gang yet, but I wouldn't have put it past them to be out here snooping around. They didn't seem to be in that much of a hurry to leave anywhere, not from what I could tell. All that worrying about what their group might've done would be behind me though, soon enough.

I had a new plan, one I had thought of after mulling it over with seemingly nothing better to do. And hopefully it'd be better than the last one I came up with.

South was starting to seem like a nice prospect with each passing hour. Walkers were going to be a problem no matter where I went, but with the way things had been going ever since I left D.C., a little change of scenery definitely wouldn't hurt. Plus, and probably most importantly, I'd be _warm_. And the less campfires I'd have to make just to keep the wind chill off of me, the better, as far as I was concerned.

It was just a matter of actually getting there. Now _that_ was putting a thorn in my side. Trudging it out on foot like this was slowly killing me with each passing step, and if I wanted to stay out of the line of fire from anything walking on two legs, a car would definitely do the trick. An ATV would be pretty cool, too. Always wanted to try one of those. Might not have been the most reliable or practical thing to travel with, but hey, at least I'd look like a total badass.

Until then, I was content to wait until my boots dried out. My visibility was severely limited right now, what with all the rain and fog swooping in, and I managed to pass the time by keeping one eye on the walkers down below. With them standing just in front of some kind of storm drain, I guessed that one of the main roads wouldn't be too far off. Grabbing a stick that had fallen from the evergreen where I was resting my aching head, I tossed the thing like a Frisbee as it sailed down; landing a direct hit at one of the walkers' legs as it seemingly only got even angrier.

I still couldn't believe that my gun was gone. I never was a fan of the noise those things made, and using my hunting knife always gave me some strange sense of satisfaction, but damn, did I ever feel vulnerable. A reckless part of my brain wanted to march back there to try and get it back, but my rational self told me not me that not only was that a stupid idea, but I wasn't even exactly sure which one of those goons picked it up. Besides, I wasn't willing to kill a person for a crime they didn't commit. Nobody had stolen anything from me – it was my own fault.

Just as I was beginning to find a semi-comfortable spot at the base of the tree trunk, I made out the sound of some kind of yelp. It was faint, and I could've been imagining things over the pounding rain – I mean, these woods _were_ pretty spooky – but nonetheless I turned my head in the direction I thought it was coming from. There were plenty of things that I hated, and getting caught off guard was one of my top contenders.

I didn't want to call out in case it was a trap, so I rose to my feet and narrowed my gaze to try and peer out into the inky darkness. There really wasn't much around aside from some more bushes and trees that were slowly encapsulating me, but when the sound came again, louder and more of a grunt this time, I knew that enough was enough. As shitty as it might've been, at least I'd gotten a bit of time to rest and stretch my legs. Time to move on.

My voyage would be short-lived, however, as a lightning strike illuminated a more urgent threat. Amongst all the sounds from the storm, a walker had gotten way too close to my shelter; drenched through his t-shirt endorsing a band I had never heard before. The bottom half of his jaw had been severed off by something, but the bastard still had some teeth to give his bite that extra _mph_.

Thinking quickly, I went to reach for my knife and end this before it became more of a problem, but I cursed my luck when the walker sprang upon me first. I pressed the limited strength I had into pushing the beast back and keeping it at an arm's distance as it swung and tried to claw at my face, but thankfully with another solid shove, I pushed it back against the tree. The thing only stumbled for a second though, and was ready to come back for round two as I drew my knife.

The next few moments all seemed to bundle together as it happened. With the ground being as soaked as it was, my foot slipped as I lost my balance, unfortunately taking the walker down with me as we fell backwards and rolled down the hill. A sharp pain stabbed at my side as we tumbled, and as frightening as it was, I didn't have time to check it out as we knocked the other walkers down below over like bowling pins. Besides, the adrenaline rush I was feeling wouldn't have allowed me to notice any pain yet, anyway.

My knife had been flung from my grasp a little ways off upon hitting the ground, sticking with the blade facing down as I was tossed to my stomach. I must've gotten the wind knocked out of me as I fell, chest heaving and coughing up bits of mud and grime, before I forced myself to start crawling on my hands and knees towards my weapon. I would _not_ go down like this! I wouldn't let myself get killed this way, not like a fucking animal trudging through yards of dirt only to get ripped open by a pack of walkers I had been mocking only minutes before.

So, doing the only logical thing I could think of as one of the walkers made a move on me, I kicked at its shin as it fell over and I rolled onto my side. I cried out in pain as I did this, however, finally managing to clutch onto part of my abdomen, only to come back with a hand stained in red.

Instantly, the worst possible thought sprang to mind.

"No…" I whispered hoarsely, trying to wipe away the mud from my jacket as I searched for what I thought for sure was coming. The walkers hadn't been dealt with yet, but right now the only thing my foggy mind could think of was, _oh shit, I'm going to die. This is it, I'm done for. After everything that's happened, everything I've done, everything I've seen and been through… all of it lead to this._

For the first time since that fateful day with Jaime, I felt tears stinging at my eyes. White-hot, fearing-for-your-life kind of tears that I stubbornly wouldn't let fall down; blinding me slightly in the process as I angrily slammed a fist into the water-logged ground. This sucked. It wasn't fair. None of it was. I didn't want to die. I hadn't really lived, not yet, anyways. I thought I was too fucking stubborn to die, but… now… with this…

" _Graghh!"_ snapped two of the walkers as they finally managed to find their footing once again. With total despair now evident as I turned to my would-be killers, I clenched my teeth and grabbed onto the nearest thing I could find. My knife was still too far away for me to reach from here, so, clutching a large rock in both of my hands, I leaned back before tossing it directly at the first walker I saw. Down it went as I heard its decayed ribs snap in two, and before long I had already pounced on the second walker as I tried tearing the beast's head apart with my bare hands.

Dirty, bloodied fingers dove straight into the eye sockets of my target as I gritted my teeth and delved deeper, the feeling of the walker's brain pressing against my skin chilling me to the core. "How's that fucking feel, huh?!" I snarled as it continued to snap its jaws in my direction. Taunting the damn thing felt like the only thing left I could control as I finally started lifting up its head, slamming it down against the metal grate of the storm drain as the collected water surrounding us began to turn a dark red. Most of it was definitely from the thing I was savagely beating to a bloody pulp, having seen no other options since my choice of weapons was in short supply, but some of it was definitely from me. I could feel some blood dripping down my forehead while the gash from my stomach wound started to collect, and after another moment or two of smashing the living daylights out of the thing, I finally stopped as the walker grew still.

I could only draw breath for a moment of release before the next one threw itself on top of me.

Pinned down as I landed with a resounding _thud_ , I turned my head to the side and closed my eyes. If this was how it ended, then I didn't want to see the face of my killer. I didn't want to feel its sharp teeth digging into my cheek, or scream out in agony as its corroded hands gouged into my stomach. My energy was zapped from trying to take on too many at once, and before I knew what was happening, I was thrust into the water of the storm drain. I gasped for air as my head was submerged, and I could do nothing but struggle against the monster's weight as the third walker managed to crawl its way out from underneath the rock; shredding its lower half in the process as I held my breath. Drowning, then? Not really what I was going for, but alright.

The last thing I noticed before blacking out was seeing the blur of a person zooming by, some kind of sharp tool in hand as they charged forward to try and come to my rescue.

…Jaime? No… no, it couldn't be… she couldn't be here… it was impossible…she… she died… because of _me_ …

"… _ane…!"_ the person cried out, skewing one of the walkers as my head rolled back.

* * *

….

….

….

…. _blech! Blech! Huhh… Cough-cough!_

The leftover sewage water running through my lungs was gross as shit as I spluttered it up, groaning painfully as I leaned over and spit out some blood onto the grass. My arms were shaking under the combined weight as I shuddered. How the hell did I survive that? I remembered falling, fighting with those walkers, which apparently were nowhere to be seen as I half-heartedly looked around, and then… nothing.

It didn't look as though I was still in the storm drain, though I could tell that it still wasn't far away as I spotted the hill I had so gracefully tumbled down before. The rain must've stopped at some point, and although it was still relatively dark out, I could spot little splashes of sunlight popping in through the trees; the dew glistening off of the branches as I tried to collect my bearings.

One thing was for sure – there was _no way_ I had just gotten out of that mess myself, and my suspicions were only confirmed even more as I saw the trio of walkers spread out in a row close to where I was recovering from.

…oh shit, that's right…

It ached like hell as I slowly lifted up my jacket, with the water from my dip in the puddle having stuck the leather material to my body, and I groaned slightly as I felt the wound get unstuck like a piece of Velcro. The blood hadn't dried yet, but as I finally lifted it up to an acceptable level, I let my head roll back and barked out a chuckle.

No bite marks anywhere. Not one to be seen, even as I triple-checked all over my body just to make sure I hadn't accidentally missed any. This would still need to be attended to, but with the right amount of cleaning and a couple of weeks without disturbing it, the mark likely wouldn't be a problem. And besides, I was _safe_. That had been way too fucking close for comfort, and as I sat down on the grass to take a load off and just revel in this short-lived victory, my head turned to the sound of footsteps coming up behind me.

Neither of us really knew what to say as we stared at each other, slack-jawed and wide-eyed with a touch of humility thrown into the mix. I guess I really shouldn't have been surprised that it was Clementine of all people who I was faced with now, but with all that had just transpired since taking my leave, I had to break eye contact first. I mean, how could I _not_? This might've been the most embarrassing and humiliating thing I had been through in a very long time.

Where would I even begin here?

Clementine walked over and dumped an armful of sticks onto her already-growing pile close to the walkers she had killed, and upon her noticing how bloody my hands had gotten, I subconsciously went to hide them in my pockets. "I, uh… I wasn't sure you were gonna wake up," she wearily mentioned, earning an awkward shrug from me as I let out a quiet chuckle.

"Yeah, well…" I started as she wiped the wood shavings off of her hands with a few dull claps, "can't say it was my first choice, mud wrestling with a bunch of walkers. But you know… gotta get my kicks in somewhere, right?"

Smirking at that, I could tell she was fighting off a few laughs as I watched her silently with amusement. I really couldn't figure the girl out. The one second that I think I've got a good read on her, she turns around and flips that notions completely on its head. It was clear to me now that she saved my life, destroying their brains and somehow managing to pull me out of the storm drain to avoid certain death. I was shocked that she had managed to do all that and somehow _still_ keep me breathing, but then again, Clementine seemed to be full of surprises.

There were still a few things I wanted to say, things I _needed_ to tell her in order to try and make up for all the crap that went down yesterday. Laying that guilt on her shoulders wasn't cool, and I had no intention of going forward without at least pretending to be correcting my mistakes.

It just so happened that I sucked at making apologies. Like, big time.

"So… about yesterday…" I trailed off as I slowly went to stand up, shaking my head when Clementine tried to lend a hand, "I'm, uhh… well… _sorry_ , about how that all went down. I should've explained things better, and leaving you like that… it… it just wasn't _me_ , you know? Not my style."

Despite it _totally_ being the way I'd usually handle things like this, I was firm in my belief as Clementine wrung her hands together and stared down at her shoes. Truth be told, and deep down I figured that I knew this all along, I was _scared_. Scared of what this might've meant, afraid to face the fact that there might be another person out there who was in the same boat I was. Someone who might've loved and lost, who got up each and every morning not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to. Clementine, despite often being quite shy and introverted from what I could tell, had a fire burning inside of her, and it was clear she had seen some pretty messed up shit. No kid her age would've acted the way she did if something happened that sent them to their breaking point. I sure as hell didn't want to step over any boundaries here, but I was going to give this "kind" thing a shot.

Running away was a mistake, and I could tell that it cut her deeply. If nothing else, it might've simply been the fact that she didn't want to have to travel alone, but if not… if there was actually some good intention, some meaning behind it…

 _Straight and to the point. Just keep it simple,_ I reminded myself after I cleared my throat. Time to not make it weird.

"I tried looking for you, back at the camp," I told her with a thumb pointing backwards. "Gotta say, though, you've got some pretty good instincts there."

Perking up a little at that, Clementine tilted her head questioningly as I shrugged my shoulders. I guessed that I'd be the one carrying the conversation once again, not that I really minded right now. It gave me plenty of opportunities to lay out what I needed.

"Covering up your trail like that, I mean. It's… it's a good habit to pick up. I do it, too. Never know when some assholes out in the woods might try and – "

Gulping as I widened my eyes, I immediately stopped myself and turned around, heading right back to square one as I tried to rearrange some of the firewood. No… she didn't need to know about it. About _them_. It was way too soon, and I didn't really feel like startling the kid even more than she already was. A bunch of crazy fucks out in the wilderness? Yeah, I think she'd be better off not knowing the details if at all possible.

"Are you feeling alright?" she softly inquired as she spotted my body lock up after moving around a little too much. Fucking walkers! "That looked like it hurt…"

"…nothing I can't shake off."

"I could help if you'd let me."

"Well, unless you've got a first aid kit in your back pocket, I think we're shit out of luck," I groaned, cringing slightly when that came out a little meaner than I hoped it would. Clementine either didn't notice or didn't care, though, as after a few seconds of holding my stomach with one hand and rooting around in the sticks with the other, she appeared by my side almost out of thin air. "C'mon, knock it off. I've got it," I insisted, lightly trying to bat her hand away as she grabbed onto some of the larger logs.

"Doesn't look like it to me," she bit back as I sighed in exasperation, dropping to one knee as I used a nearby rock to support myself. Okay, maybe she had a _little bit_ of a point. "You need to clean that out with something, and patch yourself up," the girl wisely mentioned as I was forced to allow her to look at the wound.

I couldn't help but snort at that. " _Hmph_. "Clean" isn't really much of an option anymore," I shook my head as I applied some pressure to the damaged area. The sucker stung like a bitch, but after taking some much-needed deep breaths as I sucked in air through the gaps in my teeth, I was starting to be able to control some of the pain. This was nothing, I was sure of it. I'd heal up soon enough.

Clementine, seeming to make up her mind about what she wanted to do, stood up after tending to me for a few more minutes. "I'll get some water from the creek. It's probably gonna be pretty gross, but I guess it's better than nothing," she announced as I reluctantly nodded my head. I didn't really feel like arguing with that logic. Hopefully she'd be able to find some napkins or something, too. I wasn't holding out too much hope of her stumbling upon a pack of bandages and gauze while she walked around.

"Got something to protect yourself with?" I asked as she nodded her head, giving the hatchet I'd seen her with a few more swings to prove her point.

I thought that would've been the end of it, and I tried to lay my head back to get rid of the pounding in between my ears, but Clementine cleared her throat as I glanced back up at her. The girl's look was stoic yet stern, with a grumpy stare on her face that, and I was kind of afraid to admit it, intimidated me a little bit as I arched an eyebrow. Well… intimidating, but also kind of amusing coming from a girl who was at least a foot shorter and fifty-something pounds lighter than me.

"If I come back here, and you're gone…"

"Not gonna happen, don't worry. Can't really travel all that well right now, anyways," I added, noticing how she cautiously hesitated at my words there for a moment, almost as if she was carefully trying to gauge whether or not she could trust me again. So far, I didn't think that was going very well.

But, I thought as I started to watch her leave, there wasn't really any time like the present to start it over again. Besides, I think I owed her for that at least. We weren't square yet.

"…hey, Clem?"

I was a little satisfied to see that she bought my line, not having been so sure that using a short form of her name would've been a good idea or not. It could've been for close friends and family only, for all I knew. "Just… be careful," I reminded her, biting my lip and deciding to go for it as she lingered by one of the pine trees. "…and…" I stumbled, sighing once again as I clicked my tongue. "…thank you."

That cold, calculating stare was still in her eyes as she gave me a sideways glance, but there was no mistaking the little grin that tugged at the corner of her lips as she nodded her head. With that, she scanned the area for walkers, turned on her heel, and disappeared into the forest.


	4. Flare

My whole face scrunched up tightly as I released a yawn of epic proportions. It'd certainly been a long morning of hiking, with only a couple of five minute pit stops in between so that one of us could relieve themselves while the other stood watch. Thankfully, for me at least, this wasn't anything new. Almost a year and a half of marching through wooded terrain like this had given my legs some pretty good strength training, and while I'd occasionally feel the ache after a solid day's worth of walking, usually the pain would only be temporary.

Clementine didn't seem to be so lucky. The girl was following steadily in behind, but the farther we travelled, the greater the distance between us would grow, and the more I'd have to wait for her to catch up. She hardly ever complained, naturally, but I could tell she was struggling. Her eyes were constantly screwed into slits as she winced when she moved around too much, but whenever she caught me looking over my shoulder towards her, she'd immediately tense up and act as if nothing was wrong.

On any normal given day, I wouldn't have cared. Wouldn't have batted so much as an eyelid. But if sneaking out during my teenage years and making up excuses to my parents had taught me one thing, it was that when somebody was faking it, you knew that something was up.

And I'd be _damned_ if there wasn't anything wrong right now.

Placing my hands in my coat pockets, I waited for a few seconds for the girl to reach my side before bringing it up. "It's gonna get infected," I mentioned quietly, not going into some sort of parental freak out mode, but not overly indifferent, either.

"Hmm?" she inquired, scratching at an itch on the side of her face. "What'd you say?"

"That burn on your neck. It's only gonna get worse if you don't – "

"I… don't know what you're talking about."

I frowned at the back of her ball cap-adorning head as we pressed on, passing an old gas station that had been boxed in to keep the walkers from breaking through the glass. Clementine was being dodgy as shit. I mean… really, she kind of had been from the start, and maybe it was still a little too early to call each other's bluff, but I wasn't wrong about this. I knew that much.

"Uh huh," I sarcastically replied, watching as she suddenly found a road sign much more interesting than me. "Can't really pull a fast one over me, Clementine. Either that's a burn, or it's one of the nastiest-looking hickeys I've ever seen."

"A… _hickey_? What's – "

"Doesn't matter. Point is," I interrupted, not sure whether I was mentally or physically capable of explaining what that was to her, "covering it up like that? See? What you're doing right there?" I pointed out as she started speed walking in front of me. I couldn't help but roll my eyes as she made a point of getting at least two steps ahead of me, but with how short she was, Clem wasn't making it very far. "That's childish. You're only gonna hurt yourself. There's no point in letting it get worse."

A scowl sprouted on her face as she muttered irritably under her breath. "Yeah, because _you_ were such a good patient back there…"

Ouch. That "childish" remark must've rubbed her the wrong way.

Gulping, I stiffened up a little bit as the moss covering certain sections of the pavement became increasingly noticeable. _Ech_ … she kind of had me on that one. I'll admit, I couldn't really sit still when she came back and started helping me dress my wounds a couple of days ago, but what was I supposed to do? Sit there with my hands folded together and wait with a massive grin from ear to ear while she put her fingers into an open cut? Ha! Yeah right. Clem was lucky that I managed to hold still long enough to keep from swinging my arms around. Now _that_ wouldn't have been pretty.

"W-well…" I stumbled, burying my hands deep into my pockets as I noticed the beginning of some kind of old track completely covered by an overgrown sheet of grass. "To be fair… I think your bedside manner might need some work there, too. _"Jane, sit still! Jane, shut up! Quit being such a baby, Jane!"_ Any of that ringing a bell?"

"I don't sound like that!"

"I dunno – give it a few years and it might be a pretty good match," I bugged her, widening my eyes a little when I felt a tiny, pre-teen fist lightly punching me in the arm. Clementine, clearly regretting this as she instantly pulled her hand back, darted her gaze to the dirt as the air became awkward around us. Gah! I'm such an idiot sometimes… I shouldn't have let it get that far. I let myself forget about where we were going, about what we were even doing walking around, looking like a couple of hobos like this in the first place.

It was such a little thing, so insignificant. Just a little jousting match between… well, a couple of survivors, I guessed, but I hadn't really been thinking anything of it. Clementine, despite her usual unwillingness to chat it up every now and again to lighten the mood, had a way of communicating without really having to do so all the time.

I think her pensiveness was starting to grow on me a little bit, like a fungus. Or maybe… maybe it was _Clementine_ that was starting to grow on me.

"…yeah. So," I continued, trying to brush it under the rug as I glanced down at her again. "C'mon then. Just… lemme have a look. You helped me back there, so…"

"There's nothing to see," she insisted, leaning her head away from my hand as I tried to reach over towards her collar. "Quit it! Why don't you just leave me alone?!"

"I won't touch anything, honest! But you can't go walking around with that all day! What if you get sick from it, or worse – what if somebody sees us and thinks you're _bit?_ "

"Just stop it! There's _nothing_ there! Please… just…"

"Then prove it to me," I challenged, folding my arms and standing in front of her to try and block the path. When she glared at me, I simply shrugged my shoulders and pointed at her collarbone. "If it's not such a big deal, then you've got nothing to hide. Go on. I'm not gonna move unless you show me."

I was kind of worried that she'd just stomp around me and completely ignore my empty threat, and she looked as though she wanted to say more as she gritted her teeth, but to my surprise, Clementine closed her eyes and shook her head. I didn't make a move or do anything other than bite my lip as she eventually let her guard down. Grabbing the collar of her long-sleeved purple shirt, Clem yanked it away as I winced. The burn, if you could even call it that, was bigger than I had realized. The bottom portion was hidden by the rest of her clothing, but the thing was already starting to scab on the outside, with most of the inflamed skin looking extremely sensitive as a massive "H" was taking shape. But just as quickly as I had seen it, so too had it disappeared as she quickly covered herself up again.

"There," she bit back, wiping a little at her eyes. "Happy now?"

No witty comebacks. No snarky responses to make up for my lack of comforting techniques. I couldn't have said anything, not that I really wanted to as she turned away from me. Reluctantly, I trekked behind and rubbed my eyes tiredly, not having a clue where to go from here.

It was a branding, there was no mistaking it anymore. There wouldn't have been a firm shape in there if it wasn't. And it wasn't as though I could compliment her for any awesome, underage prison tats, either, not with how painful that looked. And with a mark like that, there was only one thing I could think of.

Someone did that to her.

* * *

I dropped an empty, used water bottle back onto the ground as I sighed irritably. Empty-handed, _again_. I didn't know whether it was karma for what I said earlier or just sheer bad luck, but this was the second makeshift campsite we had come across today, and we had nothing to show for it thus far. Not even a scrap of food had been left over.

Whoever settled here had obviously left in a hurry, what with all of the sleeping bags thrown aside in some mad dash to get to their truck, which had both of its doors wide open when we arrived. None of the lights were on inside though, and the key was nowhere to be seen, meaning at least another few miles of trudging it out on foot. Clementine was digging through the little carriage-looking thing hitched to the back of the vehicle, and although it was mostly just full of old newspapers and magazines, it seemed to keep her occupied for the time being.

Good thing, too. I was getting a little queasy from all the sideways frowns I was getting.

"Not again…" I murmured, feeling a little frustrated with the lack of supplies after how well my last run had been. "If this keeps up, we'll have to drink from the dirt puddles. I… don't suppose you've got a sprinkler in your back pocket there, do ya?"

Nothing. Not even a head shake. Either she was way too engrossed in that magazine, looking to be something about movies from what I can tell off the cover, or she was just ignoring me altogether. Regardless, it did nothing to help lighten the mood as I shut the door and leaned against the side of the truck bed.

" _Ooookay_ then…" I trailed off, leaning my head over to try and get a glimpse of what she was doing reading old magazines that weren't even relevant anymore. Newspapers were flying out from underneath the tarp in the wind, with one of them catching Clem's leg as I watched her struggle to get it off.

"Mmgh…" she mumbled as another couple flew towards her in the breeze, with one of them catching her in the face as she tried to peel away the classified section. "Umm… Jane?" came her muffled voice as I chuckled and slid some of the papers off.

Pulling it back and checking out the contents for a second, I pursed my lips and nodded my head. "Local man gets stuck in the sewer," I remarked, scrunching it up into a ball and chucking it back onto the tarp. "I didn't really peg you for the… you know, _reading_ type."

"It's not like we've got a TV around here," Clem shrugged as she put the magazine back where she found it.

"Ain't that the truth," I agreed, making sure to sling our bag over my shoulder just right so that nothing would fall out. It was getting alarmingly lighter as each day passed by, but I was reasonably confident that with enough rationing, we could stretch this out for a few more days if we needed to. Reasonably. "Gotta admit though, I think I was more of a movie gal than watching anything on the tube."

"Oh?"

"Yup. Nothing like a good sci-fi or gangster flick to get you in the mood," I explained as I checked over the gas meter and huffed. Empty, just as I figured. Wouldn't have really mattered all that much with no key, but I was kind of hoping we could maybe siphon some of it for later. "There were only a handful of Star Trek ones I could watch before getting confused, but I could watch those mystery films all day long. Indiana Jones used to kick the shit out of all the other old-school ones I used to have back then."

"What's that?" she asked, and I had to keep my mouth from gaping wide open as I turned to the girl with a shocked expression.

"Seriously? You never watched Indie back then? What kind of depraved childhood did you have?" I smirked as she tilted her head to the side in a confused daze. "Not really surprised, though. It was, err… kind of before your time. _Heh_ , I remember this one day, Jaime and I watched an entire – "

Freezing up, I stopped myself and clenched my jaw tightly; trying to blow it off by coughing into my sleeve. Trying to do so was making my stomach injury act up again, but at that moment I didn't really care. All I wanted was to…

"Who's… Jaime?" she creased her brow, perplexed as to why I had cut myself off so abruptly. But I couldn't say it, not to her, not to _anyone_. I couldn't dig up the past, couldn't face up to what I had done.

… _I don't care anymore, Jane._

 _Bullshit! Quit being such a whiny little bitch already! Get up! Mom and Dad wouldn't have wanted you to just sit around and –_

 _They're dead. We are too. Why bother fighting it anymore? I'm just… tired. Leave me alone, already._

 _That's not happening! God damn it, Jaime, can't you just listen to me for once?!_

 _Go away. I'm not… not moving._

… _I'm NOT leaving you to die like this! Fucking… just…_

"…we need to keep moving before the sun goes down," I stated, mentally kicking myself as I choked on the last bit of the sentence. It was impossible to avoid her questioning looks, but I turned away anyways and started heading towards those old train tracks I had seen earlier. With a little luck, we might've been able to find something we could scavenge out of. Based on our track record today, however, that chance was looking pretty slim. "C'mon, then. Let's hit the road. I'm… getting kind of sick of these campsites, anyways."

I wasn't a fan of how she lingered by the truck bed, her arms folded across her chest as she eyed me carefully up and down before sighing and pushing herself off. She was giving me the stink eye at least a dozen times a day ever since our little… _misunderstanding_ , when I came back from scouting that day, and as much as I probably deserved it, the constant glares were kind of getting on my nerves.

"Problem?" I challenged as she brushed by me and hopped over a small, metallic fence and landed clumsily on the other side.

Dusting the dirt off of her jeans, Clementine shrugged her shoulders and spotted the tracks I had seen earlier. "You'd just think it's stupid," she replied as we continued to walk side by side.

"What is?" I prodded as the tracks started to become more and more visible. If there was some kind of issue between us, I didn't want to have to keep guessing as to what it was every time we went anywhere.

Tilting her head back and closing her eyes, I saw a pained expression filter across the child's face as she shook her head once again. "Do you remember when… when you asked me if I had any friends out looking for me?" she questioned as we passed alongside a road crossing along some of the old railway tracks. "Well… that's _kinda_ true, at least."

"Kind of?"

"I'm the one supposed to be looking for _them_. Not the other way around."

So _this_ must've been the thing she'd been worrying about the entire time, and why she's been looking so squeamish ever since we teamed up a few days ago. Made sense, I supposed. Being a young kid and everything, finding her group members probably would've been the first thing that came to her mind.

It's not necessarily a great idea, though. I should know. Things like that… they just never end on a happy note.

"We umm, got separated a while back," she told me, fiddling with the hem of her sweatshirt as I raised an eyebrow in her direction. She was lying straight through her teeth, but I made no comment on it. If she wanted to have her own reasons, then by all means, she could. Secrets were probably one of the few things nobody could take away from us. "There were a bunch of us, almost ten, I think. We were spending a couple of days at this ski lodge up in the mountains, and… w-walkers came over."

"Was it part of that herd we saw before?"

"…no, I just… I got caught up in that," she explained, making it painfully obvious that there was more to this than she was letting on. Upon noticing my questioning stare, she continued to share her story as we noticed the tracks splitting off into two separate paths. "Left or right?" she wondered aloud as I placed one hand on my hip. Hmm… branching out to the right might've lead us to the next town over, but I knew for a fact that staying on the left would at least keep us close to the main road if we were to get lost. Choosing to pick the more reliable option, I shrugged the strap of our bag across my shoulders as we continued our backpacking trek down the left railway track.

"We all ran in different directions. It… it was just _crazy_. One second we're eating these peaches and beans, and the next…" she continued as I took every word she said with a grain of salt. "The place was powered up by these giant windmill thingies, and I guess the noise must've drawn them to us. There were too many to deal with, and we didn't have enough bullets to put them all down, so we just decided to go. I got split up from them and… yeah."

Bending down to tie up the lace on my boot, I felt Clementine hovering over my left shoulder as I stretched out the kinks in my back. "Hmm… with a place like that, I'm surprised you wouldn't try to just lead them somewhere else. You don't get too many places with electricity these days," I remarked as she rubbed her arm in discomfort. "But if you were looking for your friends," I suggested with a hint of doubt, "then why did I find you in Howe's? Were you sightseeing or something?"

Seeming to pick up on the fact that I was onto her little game, Clementine gulped nervously as we started to see a fairly decent-sized object in the distance, stranded on the track as I shielded my eyes from the sun. It was difficult to make out exactly what it was from here, but thanks to the cloud cover, I could at least see that it had somehow been toppled over onto its side.

"…it… was a big store. I just figured somebody might've found it, too. Besides," she pointed out with a small frown, "you said it already, right? There aren't a lot of supplies anymore. I thought it might've been a good place to start looking."

"…so you're telling me that you were in there, carving that walker through the stomach and looking like you'd just seen a ghost, because you were _scouting?_ That's what you're going with?"

"That's what happened. So, yeah."

"Really?"

"Yep," she insisted hastily as I rolled my eyes when she couldn't see me. Normally, I wouldn't really give a damn about her straight-up lying to my face. That was her business, and if it helped her sleep at night, then all the power to her.

But there were more holes in her story than a fucking slice of Swiss cheese. First off, if she got chased off by the dead, then why the hell was she sporting a freshly-made branding? Unless the walkers suddenly learned how to start using tools, or her friends were just giant douchebags, then I'm pretty sure somebody else was responsible for it. Secondly, the girl had _no_ supplies on hand when I spotted her in that trash room. None. Zero. Zilch. And judging by the way she was going at it, I'm pretty sure that grabbing bullets, weapons and other bare essentials was going to be the very last thing on her mind.

I took out my knife as we got closer and closer to the object at hand, thinking about the last strike against her shitty narrative. Those people I had seen when I first arrived… they were _definitely_ here beforehand, and from what I could tell, there was definitely a larger group living under Howe's roof before those walkers closed in on them, too. The chances of Clementine sneaking into the building without anyone coming across her, through a damn _herd_ no less, were staggeringly low. Sure, she could elude me pretty darn well if she wanted to, but with the mental and physical state she was in, I'd just as soon picture her paralyzed with fear on the ground as to making any stealthy entrances.

"Huh," I said simply as we pushed our way forward. That thing we had seen earlier turned out to be some kind of old boxcar, with the wheels and axels all rusted to shit as it was laid out flat on its side. The side door still seemed to be intact, but prying that thing open would take a lot more muscle than just me. "Well, I've gotta admit. This is a new one," I commented as Clementine walked up beside me. "Ever been on a train before, Clem?"

A pained look travelled across her face for a brief moment, as if recalling a past that she'd soon rather forget. "…one time."

"Got one up on me, then. C'mon, give me a hand with this thing."

Doing as requested, she shuffled over beside me as I pressed one hand against the door handle, but I stopped myself as I heard a familiar growl coming from the other side of the boxcar.

"Ah, shit," I groaned lightly, as sure enough, a walker had been trapped underneath the massive weight as the entire lower half of its body had been trampled on. Somebody had likely thought it'd be a funny joke to cut off the walker's arms as they laid motionless beside the beast's thrashing jaw, but all it came out as was twisted and messed up. I was actually feeling a little bit sorry for this guy, but one swift strike to its rotting brain kept it from snapping its teeth at me any longer.

Clementine looked a little perturbed by the whole thing as I frowned in her direction. Dammit… I was so used to her being able to handle herself with all of the survival tactics and everything that I forgot about how this shit might still be affecting her. I wasn't exactly immune to this type of thing yet, either.

"Look… I'm sure he died before… before _this_ ," I pointed back towards the corpse, "happened to him."

"You don't really believe that."

"Better than thinking about it too much," I replied as she reluctantly nodded her head. "Trust me. It's a lot easier to make up positive things in your head than to constantly remind yourself that there are dead guys walking around. Just… try not to think of them as people, okay?"

I hated seeing this kid down in the dumps like this, I could admit that much now. Watching her constantly depressed face somehow grow even sadder whenever crappy things like this turned up was a difficult thing to watch. She was tough, but everybody had their limits. Survivor or not, Clementine was a human being just like the rest of us.

And due to the hardships we'd faced over the past little while of travelling together, I thought the least I could do would be to pass down some of my knowledge down to her. I wasn't exactly the best at doing all of that nurturing crap, but I could at least give her a few pointers.

"Lemme see that hatchet of yours real quick," I said suddenly, confusing her as Clem reluctantly handed it over. Planting a firm grip on the handle, I lodged the sharp edge into the sliding latch on the boxcar door and beckoned for her to come over. "Might as well see what goodies we've got in here, huh? Alright, on my go…" I grunted, flinching a little as I felt her shoulder brush up against my arm. On the count of three, we pulled as hard as we could; managing to only open the door a smidge as we stopped to catch our breath. "Where's a damn tow truck when you need one…" I huffed, eliciting a tiny chuckle from my little compatriot as I grinned and started pulling it again. This thing was heavy as hell.

By the time we got the door halfway open, we had found the culprit. A woman was hanging by her neck from a belt that was tied to the side door; a suicide attempt likely from her not wanting to starve to death in a locked, lopsided boxcar as I gritted my teeth. Both of the girl's legs had snapped in two, with parts of her shins and the top of one of her kneecaps piercing through her rotted skin as her body dangled in a circle. The woman must've been in here for quite some time, since the walker she had transformed into barely made so much as a growl as we opened the door. The smell was almost unbearable, but the few half-opened boxes down below might've had some pretty useful stuff inside.

"Remember – they're dead, we're not. Let's try to keep it that way," I wearily reminded her even though I was having trouble looking at the sight myself. I wedged out the hatchet and was about to swing downwards, when once again Clementine volunteered to do the deed herself.

The first swing managed to slice the girl's ear clean off. And then another swing. And another. And another. By the time she had finally managed to hit the girl's brain, her sweatshirt had dark red spots covering the front of it, and the walker didn't resemble anything close to what it had looked like before.

"It's alright. It's done," I told her as she shuddered and wiped the side of her mouth with her arm. I couldn't help but be a little worried at how long it took for her to kill that thing, though, at least for her own safety. "Y'know, that hatchet seems to get stuck pretty easily. It's… well, you just can't afford to let that happen, you know?" I ended on a softer note, not wanting to scare the daylights out of the girl even more today by suggesting she could be killed at any time.

"Well… what would work, then?" she inquired as I scanned the surrounding areas.

"I've got a few ideas," I said as I, unfortunately, burdened myself with the task of hauling the corpse off of the belt and out into the dimming sunshine. Wiping my hands on the grass, I peeked into the caboose to check it over once more, and nodded my head. "Might as well stick around here for the night. Any more walking and I think you'll try to bury me into the pavement."

Seeming to agree with that, Clementine reluctantly climbed into the side of the door; gagging at the horrible smell coming from every nook and cranny, but I could tell that she knew it was necessary. I was silently grateful that I didn't have to keep prodding her into doing what had to be done to survive. For the most part, she just went along with it without complaint. Certainly made things a lot easier on my part.

"Just sit tight. I'll be back in a few. Anyone else tries to come in here, then… umm… hide, I guess," I told her sheepishly, wondering just how many times she had to do that sort of thing over the past couple of years.

* * *

"You're not seriously asking me this right now, are you?"

"Why not? I never went, and I just thought that… well… "

"Clem," I chuckled, striking the end of my newly-carved spear with the side of my hunting knife, "I don't think I've been to college since… oh geez, what was it? Seven years ago? Eight? I can barely remember what I had for breakfast yesterday morning, let alone what I did as a freshman."

"Huh?"

"It's what they called the new people who got in, the guys who just started going," I clarified with a smirk, stretching out my legs as I stared up at the night sky. As crappy of a sleeping area as it was, the view was pretty decent, and the company was… _something_. "Anyway, I only went for one year anyways, so I don't know how much help I'm gonna be."

Sitting up and crossing her legs as she played with the string of a yo-yo she had found buried in one of the boxes, Clementine arched her neck. "Why just one year?" she asked as I sighed deeply. Ugh… recalling those younger years was never a pleasant experience, especially with the way that it ended with my parents.

Mom and Dad knew I could be a real piece of work, what with the "bad-ass" stuff that my small circle of high school friends used to make me do in order to try and fit in. But honestly, I had the same opinion of them. I tried on several occasions after my abrupt exit from the dear, old family home to come to terms and bridge the gap between us, but apparently even Washington, D.C. wouldn't cut it as a suitable distance from my house. Late night calls with Jaime usually ended in me choking up and having to hang up the phone far too soon, or it would conclude with a bubbling sister begging me to come home through the speaker.

I thought I had wanted that lifestyle. The idea of living on my own after putting up with the bullshit at home seemed like a dream come true, and at first it totally was. I learned skills that I had no clue I even possessed, and although even to this day my cooking usually ends up far too dry for my taste buds to handle, the fact that I could do that myself gave me this feeling of independence that I never wanted to let go.

Only when Jaime would call or visit me every few months or so would I realize that I was far more alone than I really cared to be.

"I, uh… dropped out after first year."

"Dropped… out? Like…?"

"Let's just say that Georgetown U no longer had need of my services."

"Oh," she said simply, looking as though she wanted to change the subject somewhat. However, her curious mind continued to test my own knowledge as she pried deeper into a past that I had mostly chosen not to remember. "What were you studying there, then?"

I had to think back on that one, scouring through the memories of a different time; simpler in some ways, but even more complicated in others. Once I finally figured it out, I chuckled in spite of myself. "You're gonna think this is so dumb…" I forewarned, almost feeling as though I was being judged by the girl as she patiently waited for my answer. "It was… well, a visual arts program. You know, drawing and painting, shit like that."

I was waiting for it – the laughing, the teasing about how stupid I was for even considering to try and pursue that as a degree. Almost everyone I talked to said I was wasting my time back then, that I should've been going for some business program or some other snooze-fest classes so that I could actually end up with a job at the end of it. If I had managed to stay home instead of getting kicked out onto the street, then that's likely where I would've ended up, too. But fuck 'em. I didn't care what they were telling me. None of that shit was who I was, or what I wanted to be. Even Jaime told me that I should've at least tried to go for a few computer classes or something on the side, just so I could polish up the old résumé and show any future bosses what a "respectable, hard-working sack of shit" I could be.

"That's… that's really cool, actually."

Needless to say, I wasn't expecting anything like that as I darted my head back towards the little survivor in the corner of our shared boxcar.

"What? You mean… really?"

"Mhmm," she nodded her head, a ghost of a smile plastered on her lips as I widened my eyes. "I used to spend whole days up in a treehouse back home just making pictures. TV shows, animals, friends… family… Just stupid kid stuff," she trailed off, the tone becoming a little somber as I focused on sharpening the wooden stick to a sharper point. The thing was essentially a giant stick sharpened to look more like a pencil, but without any bullets or a gun to our name, having a makeshift weapon in a pinch would be a big help. "What did you used to make?"

"Me? Well…" I stalled, feeling a flush of humility coming over me as I called back to my creative days. It was such a short period of my life, snuffed out early on after losing the financial support for going to class, but I could still recall some of my old designs hanging up on the walls of my one-bedroom apartment in downtown D.C. "I was kinda big into the modern stuff. You know… cities, nature, buildings, that kind of thing… Hey, don't give me that look! It wasn't all boring!" I exclaimed as Clem snickered quietly to herself. "I used to do a lot of sci-fi things, too. But… I think my favourites were probably the comic books I used to help make."

Perking up a little at that, Clementine took a bite out of some of her rations for the evening as I started trying to jab the thin air with the wooden spear; another finished one sitting idly beside me on the floor of our compact shelter. "I had this buddy of mine back in college. Real nerdy kind of guy, but we lived in the same apartment building, so it made sense to hang out a little bit," I elaborated, placing the second spear down and feeling slightly proud of myself for making something that might've ended up saving our lives. "Anyway, we had some class on creative media or some shit, I don't remember. Prof was up his own ass about almost everything he ever talked about, but he gave us this project where we got to make a little comic strip about anything we wanted."

"What was yours about?" she asked quietly, seeming to have calmed down considerably since this afternoon.

"We called her _Captain Moonshine_. Heh, I still can't believe I remember that part…" I mused, lost in my own little world of super heroes and no outside responsibilities. I used to stay up for hours each night trying to come up with better and more life-like designs for her, never being fully satisfied with it even after the deadline for the assignment approached. "She was supposed to be like some kind of super hero, using the power of her fists to beat criminals into submission. And every time she'd get one arrested, ol' Cap would take a swig of moonshine from her belt."

"That just sounds… _gross._ "

" _Heh_. Yeah. Yeah it probably was," I smiled, the first genuine smile I had given Clementine ever since this whole mess began. "Thing is, though, she secretly _wasn't_ a super hero at all," I explained wryly. "It was all an act. Her super-powered fists? She jacked a pair of brass knuckles from her grandpa's basement after his street fighting days. She was really just a raging alcoholic, making up this game in her mind of bringing in the bad guys for the cops, even though the police were constantly looking to bring her back to the drunk tank."

 _That_ got her going, as I could hear a series of snorts coming from the girl in the corner, likely covered up by her hand on her mouth. I couldn't see her tiny frame in the inky blackness of the boxcar, but I could tell that even among all of this death and craziness, that she was smiling, too. If only temporary, I had to admit – that might've been the nicest sound I had heard all day.

 _Hmph_. Turns out Clem had a sense of humour after all.

"Hey," I whispered softly, taking out a tensor band left over from a half-removed first aid kit we had found in one of the boxes as I tried to feel my way around. Accidentally tapping onto the brim of her hat as she no doubt scowled at me, I could just barely make out her face as presented the object in my head. "So… I know you weren't feeling too hot about me doing this earlier, but…" I sighed, waiting for an argument that surprisingly didn't appear this time around. "Do you mind if… well, if I try to…?"

I could hear her shallow breathing as the crickets chirped at us from outside, but after a while she grunted and lowered the collar of her shirt to hang just off the side of her shoulder. Taking that as the only acceptance I'll likely get, I nodded and tried my best to at least wrap it around the sore area. It was difficult to see if I was aiming the thing properly in the dark, with almost no light source whatsoever besides the stars and the moon, still covered by a thin layer of clouds as they floated across the night sky.

" _Mmf!"_

"Ah shit, sorry, Clem… Should only be a little bit longer, though. Try to suck it up."

"Easy for you to say," she mentioned hoarsely, whimpering every time I had to apply pressure to the burn. "You kept swearing every time I had to pour that water on your stomach…"

Snorting at that, I went to wrap the bandage under her arm for another round of layering. "Yeah? I didn't really notice all too much."

"You said fu… the _f word_ … like ten times that day."

"That's all, hmm? Guess I'm getting sloppy, then," I grinned, trying to find the pin that had come attached to the tensor band so that I could tie up my masterpiece. Honestly, it probably looked like a complete mess, but as long as it covered up the wound and held together long enough for it to heal, then I was satisfied.

As she watched me finish up, eyeing my handiwork carefully as I tried to be as gentle yet firm as I possibly could, I could just barely make out her biting her lip. "So… I was just thinking… maybe tomorrow we could start looking for them?" she suggested, not needing to go into specifics as I knew exactly what it was she was asking me to do. "It's just, well… I stopped for a while when we left the hardware store, and I _really_ need to find them again. You'll help me though, right?"

Managing to find the metallic clip as it reflected the dim light from above, I fastened it securely onto the tensor bandage and lifted the collar of Clem's shirt back up to the usual level. With my work done, I stood up and grabbed onto one of the spears I had meticulously crafted like some cavewoman out in the wilderness.

"Jane?" she called out my name again. "Did you hear me?"

"I'm gonna take first watch. Who knows what might try to sneak up on us out here," I told her without missing a beat, snatching up some of the vegetables as I took a bite out of a celery stick. "Just get some rest – let that burn heal up, and don't try to itch at the bandage or anything. I'm not resetting it again."

Climbing up to the top of the flipped boxcar as I slid the door open some more, I almost made it all the way outside before a scathing tone reached my ears.

"I can't _believe_ you right now!"

"…Clem, you know that'd be a waste of time."

"Just because you want to be alone for the rest of your life doesn't mean I have to!" she exclaimed, stunning me a little bit as she rose to her feet. "My friends are probably out there right now wondering where the heck I went, and I'm _not_ gonna stay here and – "

"Would you keep it down, already? Geez, we're already almost out in the open as it is!" I retorted, spinning around after I wrenched the door open with some force. "If your crew's really out there somewhere, then running around like a couple of chickens with our heads cut off would be a stupid idea. And somehow I doubt any of you came out here with a tracking signal for each other."

Leering at me, the girl folded her arms across her chest and shook her head in disgust. Clem was _fuming_. "I knew you wouldn't care… Figures. The only time I bring them up, and you tell me to forget about them and leave my friends behind!"

"Hey! I never said that at all!"

"That's what you meant! Don't try to tell me you didn't!"

Stifling my pride back down my throat and keeping my cool, or at least _trying_ to, I leaned against the door and tried not to look her in the eye. Okay… so maybe heading out and looking for a bunch of people I didn't know wasn't exactly high on my list of priorities, but could she really blame me? After what happened with that group I had seen out in the woods and what became of them, I really wasn't too keen on the idea of staying in this state any longer than I had to.

That was it. That was how I'd do it. If I was ever going to be able to convince her that this was a bad idea, then coming clean about what happened was the only option.

Taking a deep breath, I switched gears and decided just to go for it. After all, what was the worst that could happen? "Even if we _were_ to go look for your friends, we'd be putting ourselves at risk. That's not a smart way to live, Clementine. You don't…–" I stopped myself, recalling that day as if I were reliving a nightmare. "Look, Clem," I turned towards her, "I never told you this because I didn't want to frighten you or anything, but there are fucking _psychopaths_ out here. I watched a guy hold a group of hostages together and murder one of them without even batting an eyelid. If we stay out here, we might be the next ones on the chopping block."

Stubbornly shaking her head, Clementine refused to accept my answer. "People are crazy _everywhere!_ It doesn't matter where you go!"

"Finding your friends is a shot in the dark! Literally! Do you even have a clue where you'd start looking?" I questioned as she closed her eyes and a tiny sniffle came from her side of the corner. She had stopped listening to my excuses almost the moment I started talking.

Having seen that there was almost no way I was going to turn around and change my mind, Clementine slowly shuffled backwards until she backed up into the compartment wall, sliding down the scuffed-up surface as she brought her knees up to her chest. I winced as she let out a shaky gasp of air, looking defeated as she lightly brushed a loose brand of hair out of her face.

Knowing that I could either climb outside and leave it at that or try to find a way to reach some common ground, I took a step down from the frigid night air and landed with a _thud_ ; the impact leaving a soft echo in our metal box of the evening.

"Hey… Clem," I tried, wondering if she was thinking about all the nasty little insults she could come up with to tell me how horrible of a person I was.

Instead of doing any of that, however, she studied my pitying look with distaste as she whimpered once and doggedly wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. This wasn't looking too good for dear, old Jane. More likely it'd be dear, old _departed_ Jane in a few minutes, by the sounds of it.

"You owe me," came her quiet announcement, her gaze finding mine as I felt myself glued to the floor of the boxcar.

" _What?"_

"You left me out there alone to _die_ ," she accused, her voice containing a seething rage that only a girl of her stature could produce, "and then I saved your life. Twice, if you count that injury you got. You owe me for this. Unless you just plan on leaving me again…"

I didn't know what to say. I was floored out of my damn mind that she would use something like that against me, all in some sorry-ass attempt to get me on board with this ridiculous plan of hers. For some reason I felt as though I was being betrayed – as though I had put my trust out on the line for a girl that I barely even knew, and that _this_ was how my faith was rewarded. We were two different people, and I knew that. My whole "go-it-alone" attitude clashed with her "your-friends-are-important" one, but I didn't think she would hold this out against me. I didn't even know the kid was even capable of keeping a grudge like that.

I let my arm fall lazily down to my side as I pursed my lips. "A-are you… are you _blackmailing_ me?" I demanded, my suspicions confirmed when she didn't even try to respond. "So… what then? Was this whole trip just a big sham? Just a way for you to get even with me when you needed it?!"

Her stern gaze seemed to falter at that, but right then I didn't care. I just needed to get out of there as soon as I could. Suddenly it was seeming a little stuffier than usual. "Jane… no, wait…"

"Forget it," I cut her off, snatching the spear I had dropped and huffing out in frustration. "Better get up bright and early then. I'd hate to avoid the disappointment when we find their bodies in the bottom of the fucking river."

Climbing out through the top, I left just enough room open for her to barely see out of before climbing down and sitting beside the corpse of the hanged walker we had taken out earlier. All the while, I tried to tune out the soft whimpers coming out from the boxcar as I rubbed my face tiredly in my hand.

What a fucking day.

* * *

Things had gone quiet over the next couple of hours. _Real_ quiet. I'd hear the wind howling as it blew over the abandoned farmers' fields across the tracks, along with the occasional hoot of an owl, but at that point even the crickets had stopped tuning out their little hymns. I hadn't seen any walkers all night which I had counted my blessings for, but they were always around. And all of this alone time to think was probably doing more harm than good.

 _Goddamnit…_ She was right, in a way. Clem didn't say it out loud, but she didn't even have to. I was being a selfish prick, in more ways than one. Expecting her to just stop caring about the people she was with altogether at the drop of a hat was unreasonable, but I couldn't bring myself to climb back inside and give her an apology.

The both of us just needed our space. Probably. Yeah.

She must've passed out sometime during the night, since I could hear her laboured breathing every now and again whenever I listened hard enough. The soft hum had lulled myself pretty close to sleep as well, but whenever my head was about to fall forward, I'd immediately shake myself awake once again. Night watch was horrible if you hadn't gotten much shut-eye recently. Don't get me wrong, I was used to going day-to-day with three to four hour powernaps instead of going into a hibernation of sorts, but one of the beauties of having another person around was that I didn't have to constantly keep a weapon hugged to my chest as I did so. It made things a little easier that way. Too bad everything else just got a shit-load more complicated.

I would've killed for a smoke right there. Hacking darts as a young adult was, for better or worse, something that could help me relax when figuring shit out for myself was no longer a feasible option. To amuse myself for the time being, I had plucked out a straw I found across the train tracks and pretended to smoke it every now and again; blowing out into the cool night as my breath appeared in front of me.

The fact that I could see it at all was starting to get a little alarming. Chilly days and freezing nights? Fall was ending, and soon enough, the icy grip of winter would come. And I had _no_ intention of waiting out the next few months buried under a thick blanket of snow.

What perfect timing to head out and look for people who might as well be dead. If they were as unfortunate as the ones I had seen back at Parker's Run, then they'd probably end up _wishing_ they were dead. Fuckers like Bill always gave me nightmares.

Stretching my arms up to the sky and shuffling over to give my back a much-needed break, I contemplated on just chugging it out and letting Clem sleep for a few more hours, when I started to spot a light in the distance. It was faint, but with the way that it was moving around on the ground before it, I knew right then and there that it was a person. _Two_ of them, in fact, as I spotted the silhouettes of both a woman and a man walking along the same train tracks that Clementine and I had walked down earlier.

And that could only mean…

"Shit, shit, shit!" I hissed, scrambling to find the wooden spear and slide open the door to the boxcar. Clambering inside, I stumbled in to find Clementine waking up from all the commotion.

" _Mmmf_ … Jane? What's…?"

"Shh," I hushed her, forcing the spear into her hand and practically shoving her to the very far wall of the room before sitting right up against her. "…keep it down, alright? We're not alone…"

I'd already taken out my knife before coming down here, but as I heard the hushed voices of the two strangers as they approached our hiding place, I cursed my luck as I spotted the other spear just sitting idly next to our rucksack.

" _Can't believe we're out here doing this shit,"_ came the first voice, a deep, reserved tone that definitely belonged to the guy I had spotted earlier. "You know we're basically handing ourselves over to these guys now, right? I can't be the only one seeing the bigger picture here!"

"C'mon Mike, you know that ain't true."

Clementine seemed to widen her eyes at that, but muffled indignantly as I placed my hand over her mouth to keep her from blowing our cover. Honestly, I don't think the kid even knew the meaning of the word. _Subtlety_ was something she really needed to start working on.

"I just don't understand why you keep defending him…" came Mike's weary reply as I used my left foot to try and move the spear out of sight somewhat. The bag was gonna be a bit of a challenge, but somehow I managed to get the strap to wrap around my ankle as I tilted my head towards the opening of the boxcar. The two of them were literally right outside, with their flashlight flailing around in search of whatever it was they were looking for.

"It ain't about defendin' anyone! You know that," she lightly scolded, her voice sounding more exhausted than angry as I felt somebody lean against the metal frame. "Look… he didn't have a choice, but _we_ did. If they'd just waited it out a couple more weeks, then…"

"You really think it would've made a difference if they were out of the pen? Besides, Bill never would've let that kid go…" Mike sighed as I stopped myself for a second. Bill? As in… No, it couldn't have been. Would've been way too much of a coincidence, that the person they're talking about was the exact same nutjob I found out in the woods. Besides, even if it was, none of that would've mattered to me. All the more reason to avoid these people, if it were. "You saw that damn look in his eye… _Jesus_. All that time cooped up in his office must've rattled his brain around."

"Maybe… Then again… oh, nevermind," the other one replied solemnly, and I had to practically shove my fist in Clem's mouth to keep her from speaking at all. I honestly didn't know why she was fighting with me on this so much, but I wasn't about to allow us to be at the mercy of two people who may or may not have had fully loaded weapons at their disposal.

When the flashlight turned away for a second, and the two of them focused on the dead walker I had left outside, I used the chance to try and scoop both of the items over towards us; knocking over one of the boxes in the process as I cringed and pressed myself as well as Clementine even farther into the wall.

"What was that?"

"Hmm? What's up?"

Every breath I took sounded a thousand times louder in my ears as I kept holding onto the girl beside me. Jesus fucking Christ. Despite being pressed up against the wall as far as we could go, and me feeling the edge of some plastic thing sticking out of our rucksack as a slow whirring sound came to life inside of it, I had never felt so out in the open. We were essentially defenseless, camped out in a metal bucket with no way out other than the entrance guarded by two heavily-armed survivors. If we somehow got out of this mess alive, I was boozing myself up at the first bar we came across – dead guys inside be damned.

"Could've sworn I heard a noise just now…" Mike whispered, his shadow reflecting off the interior as he shone his flashlight into the boxcar. "Hey Bonnie, did you check this out, yet?"

I heard some shuffling as Clementine's cheek brushed up against my jacket, and I held as still as humanly possible when Bonnie stuck her head in through the doorway.

"I'm thinkin' yer just gettin' jumpy again. It happens," she chuckled lightly, patting Mike on the arm as a sliver of the light source caught my boot. I snaked my leg back uncomfortably before anyone could see me, though. "C'mon, now. Ain't nothin' in here but junk, anyways. Paranoia's been gettin' to everyone lately."

Clementine's heart was racing against my stomach as the flashlight left the boxcar, but that didn't stop me from staying right where I was as they continued to chat right outside. Fucking leave already!

"There's a pretty good reason for that, if you ask me," went Mike's tired reply. "…seriously though, Bonnie… We could just go. Right now, no questions asked."

"You can't be serious right now!"

"I'm _dead_ serious! How is this even a discussion? This guy's fucking crazy! Who knows what he'll do next!"

"I don't think I need to remind ya of our _friends_ back there, Mike. We can't just up n' abandon 'em, not while they're all still there!" she pointed out as Clementine thrashed under my grip. I was getting seriously confused with everything going on, though, and the more that I listened to them, the more I wanted to give my head a shake. "Look, once we've found a new place, n' things have settled down a twitch, then… we'll talk about it s'more, okay? Can you give me that much?"

I heard a soft chuckle rumbling from deep within Mike's sternum as he sighed. "You sure it doesn't have to do with old Casanova back there, hmm?"

"Mike, _please_ … that's not – "

"Right, right. Yeah. Sorry, too soon?"

"Too soon."

I'm surprised that Clementine didn't suffocate underneath me with the way I practically had to smother her, but after waiting for about ten more minutes or so, trying to ignore the kicks to the shin she would give me every time she tried to escape, I finally rolled off after making sure that neither of those two were in sight.

Breathing deeply as I climbed outside, shutting my eyes and leaning against the boxcar, I revelled in the cool breeze coming through my shortened hair as Clementine practically stomped her way past me.

"God damn, that was close…" I murmured, adjusting the strap of the rucksack as I noticed her walking down the same path Mike and Bonnie just took. "Hey, get back here! Clem!" I hollered, jogging up to her and snatching onto her wrist. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"Following them! Or at least I _would've_ been if you hadn't gotten in the way!"

"Okay, just _calm down_ for a second here, alright? What are you even talking about?"

"Bonnie and Mike! I knew them!" she steamed, trying to break free from my grasp as I eventually just let her go.

Tentatively, I placed my hands on my hips and arched a brow in her direction. "So… those two were your friends, then?" I asked, noting the way she hesitated before nodding her head vigorously. "Okay then," I doubtfully started, "wanna tell me why they were talking about some crusty, old asshole as if he was the end of the world? Your story's not really holding up, Clem."

"…I don't have time for this, Jane."

"Bullshit! And even if that were true, you trying to go off in there like a damn hyena wouldn't have made things better!" I mentioned, watching her anger plummet to the ground. "Walkers? Bandits? If you gave away our position just now, we would've been dead meat! That's no way to find your friends."

Clementine's shoulders sagged, murmuring to herself as she unconsciously reached for the spot of her shirt where the bandage was. Playing the bad cop wasn't going to win her over. After all, what self-aspiring pre-teen wants to get lectured by anyone about _anything_ at all? I'd become invested into this now, delving into much more drama and mystery than I had ever wanted or was comfortable with.

But I wouldn't leave. Not this time, not when she clearly needed somebody the most. And even if I wasn't going to be her number one pick for that role, I figured that I'd have to do for the time being.

After all, apparently I "owed her", remember?

"…if I'm gonna help you find your buddies, then I can't be in the dark on this, Clem. Not anymore," I told her, bending down to her height level as she stared right through me. "Just… start over again. What aren't you telling me, and why do I get the feeling that this is somehow more than just a herd of walkers?"

Whatever it was that was going through that girl's mind, I could tell she was hurting really badly. Every time I even brought it up, there was this distraught look in her eyes, and her whole body would clench up into a ball. But when she refused to spill the beans to me, whether out of fear or something else I wasn't sure of, I dipped my head downwards and stood up straight.

"If they were heading that way… I think Charlotte's pretty close by. I'd imagine we'd be able to catch up to them there. Sound good?" I suggested, offering up her spear as she shakily grasped it in her hands. "Alright, then. Let's get going. Don't want anyone else to come and sneak up on – "

 _Bzzt! Bzzzt-Bzzzt!_

The both of us searched all around, checking the fields for any signs that somebody had been following us other than the two we had just encountered a few moments ago. Back to back, Clem and I frowned deeply as we held our weapons out in front of us; armed and at the ready.

Nothing was out there, though. Not even a walker for as far as the eye could see. Mike and Bonnie had disappeared out of sight, and no other survivors were within hitting distance.

"… _Who's on this line? I can hear you loud and clear, you know? So you might as well come clean."_

"Where's it coming from?" Clementine whispered as I frantically threw off the rucksack, realizing exactly what the problem was as I dove my hands through the remaining contents. "Jane? What's going on?!"

"… _well I'll be damned,"_ crackled the voice as a hoarse laugh came on through the other side. _"Clementine, is that you, sweetheart? It certainly has been a while. Now, don't you think about hanging up on me just yet. We wouldn't want Nicky here to become even more crippled than he already is…"_

Dropping to her knees without even caring about the jagged rocks below that surrounded the train tracks, Clem watched helplessly as I pulled out one of the damn radios I had taken from Howe's back then. That noise in the boxcar must've been one of us accidentally switching it on when we were hiding the bag away.

Shit!

" _Clock is ticking there, hun. And you might want to play along – I don't think Nick's going to be much use with another bullet in his leg,"_ he cruelly suggested as I finally plucked the stupid thing out and went to flip open the battery casing for it. That is, until a loud scream from the other end of the line came pounding through the speaker.

" _BILL! STOP IT! HE'S HAD ENOUGH!"_

 _SMACK!_

" _I'll be the one to say when he's finished there, Luke. Now… where's Bryan?"_

" _His name is AJ you fucking son of a bitch!"_

" _Pretty sure the custody battle is over, Bec. Alvin's not exactly in a position to protest, either. Troy, keep your gun aimed at Kenneth over there. I don't want any of these ingrates wandering off again,"_ Bill warned in a gravelly tone, and my skin crawled as I recalled the intimidation tactics he had used before. If there was ever any doubt as to who he was before, it was all but erased, now.

I took one look at Clementine's outstretched hand, a look of desperation and sheer terror in her eyes as I shook my head.

"Don't even think about it, Clem."

"We don't have a choice…" she whispered, the both of us trying to keep our voices down so that he couldn't hear what we were saying. And if either of us turned it off… "G-give it to me. _Please_ … it… it's _my fault_ they're with him. With Carver. I have to do this…"

"He'll _kill_ you!"

"And they'll die if I don't say anything! I can't… I c-can't let anyone else die because of me…"

My blood was running cold as I clutched the stupid hunk of plastic in my hand, hearing nothing but static for a while until "Bill" or whatever fucking name he was going by spoke up once again; humming the theme song to the Jeopardy game as if he was taunting the both of us.

" _I'm giving you to the count of three,"_ he said, the cries for help in the background making it seem like his threat was the real deal. _"Clementine, if you don't give me an answer by then, we'll have to make things more difficult."_

" _DON'T YOU FUCKING HURT HER! HEAR ME, ASSHOLE?!"_

" _Oh I do, Ken. Loud and clear. But honestly, how fucking dense do you have to be?"_ he mocked as Clementine covered her ears and gritted her teeth in anguish. _"I thought you'd have learned after Sarita that crossing me was just a stupid idea. Guess it's going to take some more…_ seasoning _with you."_

"Jane… Pl-please…"

" _Final warning! What's it gonna be, Clementine?! Talk to me right now and rejoin the community,"_ Carver barked as a knot formed in my stomach, _"or I'll do to Kenny here… what you did to me."_


	5. Concede

"Jane, _give it_ to me!"

"This is stupid! Don't throw your life away because of some asshole making threats!"

"I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for them! Letting them die is _stupid!_ I have to do this!"

Growling in the back of my throat, I let my finger glaze over the "talk" button on the radio as I heard the static whizzing on the other side. Carver couldn't hear what we were saying anymore after I had put the radio on silent for the time being, and as much as I wanted to yank out the batteries and toss the thing twenty yards down the railway tracks, it wasn't my call. Clementine had to make this choice, I couldn't deny her of that. Not when it was dealing with hostages that were obviously close to her.

I should've just left the stupid thing well enough alone, but I had no idea that _Bill_ of all people would've had an extra set with him. I didn't even know another set _existed_ , for that matter.

It was weird, though. For some reason, I couldn't bear the thought of watching the kid give in to this guy, acting all selfless and whatnot just so that her friends could have a shot at getting out of there alive. It was _infuriating_. I couldn't believe she was willing to do that for people who, although I wasn't certain, might not have done the same for her.

We had a system going now, and it was working fairly decently. Sure, our last argument didn't pan out so hot, but this whole "duo" thing we had wasn't becoming as much of a burden as I originally thought it was.

And now, to see it all potentially thrown away on a whim… my hand still wouldn't let go of that damn walkie-talkie, clutching onto the thing for dear life.

"… _nothing, huh? Now that's disappointing,"_ Carver mocked, a faint clicking noise in the back of his throat cutting over the speaker as who I could only assume was Nick yelled out in pain once again. Tears sprang into Clementine's eyes as she rushed towards me, begging for me to give in as she tried to beat her tiny fists on my abdomen.

" _Oh my god… Bill… please don't…"_

" _Nick! You're gonna be alright, man – just… just hang on!"_

" _Kenny's next, Clementine! Talk to me right now, or else. I'm a man of my word,"_ snarled Carver over the speaker as I glanced down upon the girl's face, quaking in desperation as I felt my grip on the radio lessen. Letting my arm slide down to the side, I held it out in front of me as I watched Clem grab onto the thing as if it was a bomb.

I didn't want to witness her throw away her life like this, so I sighed and retreated back into the boxcar; making sure that we hadn't forgotten anything important before venturing out into unknown territory. No point in leaving anything for the walkers, and it's not as if the scavengers would leave anything behind for _us_ if the roles were reversed. I usually didn't get bitter about that sort of thing, since I likely would've done the same if I was down to my last can of food.

The first cracks of sunlight were starting to creep their way across the horizon, appearing almost as if they were just waking up with the rest of the world as I stepped out of the boxcar again. Nothing else worth taking, unfortunately, and depending on what Clementine's response was going to be, it might not have mattered regardless. I gulped down the last bite of celery that I'd saved myself from last night, the only ration I forced myself to keep until noon later today, and glanced over at the young girl. She seemingly hadn't moved from where I'd seen her, having shut her eyes tightly and shuddered before pressing onto the button.

"…w-what do you want?"

"… _seems like you're getting off easy today, Kenny-boy,"_ chimed Carver as we heard him shove the guy to the ground with as much force as he could muster. We could hear the beginnings of some kind of struggle from the other end, but it was quelled almost as instantly as it happened. _"Glad to see you're being reasonable this time, Clementine. Although, after the way you fired off that pistol, I suppose anything's an improvement,"_ he goaded, even somehow making my own anger rise with every word he spoke. I felt my grip around the spear tighten as I tapped Clementine on the shoulder, motioning silently for the two of us to hit the dusty trail as we followed along where Mike and Bonnie had left.

The regret painted onto Clementine's face as she released a pain-riddled frown was easy enough to spot as we walked side by side, but I doubted any of that remorse was intended for this douchebag.

" _But it's not about what I want. It never has been… it's about what's_ owed _,"_ he emphasized. I wanted to tell Clem to be cautious around this guy, to try and help her find the right words to say that wouldn't put herself into an even deeper hole than I had likely gotten her into, but this was her show. I didn't have to know the guy personally to tell that Carver wouldn't appreciate another person stepping in and shitting on his parade, either. _"And after you helped leave Howe's in such a sorry state, I don't think you're in any real position to argue with me."_

"Did you hurt any of them?" Clementine asked as I inwardly cringed, for once knowing more about this whole affair than her.

It went quiet for a little while on the other end of the line, a cough escaping from Carver's raspy throat as Clementine knitted her eyebrows together. _"Nothing that they didn't deserve,"_ he responded as I whipped my head around, finding it increasingly difficult to keep from snatching the radio back from her grasp and chucking it as far as I could throw. _"But as long as you come back to the group and rejoin our community, we'll sort out your mistakes in no time. You can earn your way back into the fold."_

If there was a category for "abuser of the year", this dude would win it in a landslide. The classic signs of hurting others, blaming the victim and then supposedly _forgiving_ them for their mistakes were all there, and Clementine was feeling the brunt of it. Biting her lip, I heard her breath get even shallower as we walked towards the end of the railway track. A faded sign was blocking off the rest of the path, likely put there because of construction back in the day, but we didn't need much more confirmation to get where we were going, anyways. Up on this hill, we could make out a once-prosperous city in the distance, now largely quiet with many of its buildings still ominously intact.

Thinking that bringing up the fact that one of the people in her old group got killed would be a bad idea, I simply patted Clementine's arm and guided the two of us over a rusty guardrail down to the residential areas below; thankful that we were both wearing jeans as she accidentally brushed up too hard against the metallic surface. Getting an infection from the rust would've been almost as much of a death sentence as a walker bite without proper medical treatment.

" _Where are you right now, anyways?"_ Carver asked as we came upon the first house we'd seen.

"I… I don't know…"

" _Approximately, then. Where were you headed before?"_

"Th-there's some kind of city nearby," she explained anxiously, obviously not trying to give too much away but really having no choice. "…I think it's called Charlotte, or something."

"… _alright. Shouldn't be much of a problem, then,"_ Bill surmised as I peered into the front window of the suburban home, seeing nothing really of use as I tried my hand at the front door. Locked as usual, and there was no way of me getting up to the second floor without pulling off some serious climbing maneuvers. With my recent stomach injury, I wasn't really feeling up to the task that day. _"There's an old business complex in the middle of downtown. Big, tall buildings with bank logos on them? Can't miss it,"_ he explained as I planted a seat next to Clementine on the front step of the porch. Folding my arms together, I stared at the ground and tried to get rid of the growing feeling of dread in my stomach. _"Meet us there by the fountain over on Tryon Street. Come by sunrise tomorrow morning, and come unarmed. If I see so much as a rock in your hand by the time we get there… well, you should know what happens, then."_

She glanced at me as I tried to shake my head, but she simply rubbed her eyes with her index finger and her thumb, pressed the talk button, and spoke into the receiver.

"…okay."

It seemed there was no talking her out of it.

" _CLEMENTINE, NO!"_

" _ENOUGH! Troy, gag him. If Kenny so much as utters another word by the time we get there, I'll cut out his fucking tongue myself,"_ Carver vehemently snapped as Clementine pleaded for his case. _"Don't worry your little head about it, sweetheart. Do what needs to be done, and we can start our relationship off right once again. I'll meet you tomorrow morning."_

The air grew deathly quiet as Carver signed off, leaving the two of us to sit in silence as Clementine switched off the radio.

* * *

A lone walker stood unchecked as it loomed over an open garbage can, filled to the brim with trash that had been left out for far too long. The bags inside were ripped open to shreds, with mold and a various assortment of maggots sprouting out, and from the depths of the bag laid the corpse of a young raccoon. The walker was digging into its meal with a thirst for blood and meat, digging its fingers into the matted fur as the once-fuzzy, little animal stared up at the sky with wide, unmoving eyes. The little guy didn't have a chance in hell once it was discovered, as not even its warning snarls or exposed fangs could make any difference to a hungry creature prowling the streets of the city.

The thing was too busy smacking its decayed lips on the flesh of the mammal to notice a little girl creeping up behind it, both hands gripped around a spear as she got within a few feet of the target. Upon my insistence, she kicked out the back of the beast's knee, watching it clumsily fall forward onto the garbage can as the girl gagged at the site of the half-eaten raccoon falling out into the alleyway. Face down and incapacitated, the walker had no hope of redemption as the girl struck; slamming the pointy end into the back of its skull as the dark blood oozed out from the impact. With a sickening _squelch_ , she twisted the weapon around once before quickly yanking it out, wiping the substance onto the walker's torn shirt before I joined at her side.

"There ya go," I praised lightly, rolling the undead man onto its back as I turned my nose away from the smell. "They're not always gonna have their back turned towards you, but take out the easy ones if it's safe enough. How're you liking the knee thing, though?"

Nodding her head with a strained smile plastered onto her face, Clementine helped me check the guy over for anything useful as I patted down his pockets. This person had been a survivor not too long ago judging by the skin colour, and judging by the lighter I found in his jeans, he might've been a smoker, too. It was a pretty cool thing to do sometimes, trying to figure out what they were like before they died… if a bit morbid, perhaps. "It's pretty useful," she responded simply, to which I was inclined to agree.

"I thought so, too. It's just the little things, y'know? Stuff like that so you don't have to waste bullets all the time," I recommended, flipping the lighter on a couple of times to make sure there was enough fluid inside. Satisfied for the time being, I pocketed my catch and looked past the dumpsters towards the end of the alleyway.

Noticing what I was staring at, Clem rubbed at her arm as she slowly rocked side to side on her heels a little bit. "Do you think it might be quicker to go that way?" she suggested, even though deep down I didn't think either of us were really in a hurry to get to our destination this time.

"Hmm… I don't think that's a good idea. Too risky. Not enough exits to get out of," I said with a grimace, trying to sound less pessimistic than I knew I could become. "It's just easy to get trapped in places like this. Honestly, I'd rather just avoid cities altogether if I could, but…" the conversation went cold, with me trying to die it down as Clementine stared off into the street from where we last walked down. "C'mon, then. Better to keep moving in a place like this."

Cities had become a nightmare early on after all of this shit went down. Everybody was running in all sorts of different directions, many trying to head back to their families, others trying to get to military "safe zones" in some vain hope that somehow the armed forces would be able to do something about it and save all their lives.

I'd thought the same thing myself, at first. Jaime had suggested it initially, of course, having saw some greasy-looking reporter on a third rate news station claiming that everyone should head to their nearest evacuation shelter for food, supplies and a place to sleep for the night. I guess nobody could really know that those places would become feeding grounds for thousands of starving walkers, but back then, nobody knew jack shit about what was really going on. How could we? Nobody told us.

Highways were a hotbed for traffic, with miles of jams on either side that seemed to stretch on forever. Once people started to turn, there was nowhere for the stranded people to run to, unless they either tried to climb over hundreds of others who were just as helpless and frightened as they were, head to the forests, jump off the bridges, or try their luck somewhere else. It was all a massive pile of craziness, and with Jaime and I caught right in the middle of it all, we were forced to –

"What's that?"

Pointing over to the left as we strolled past a pair of decrepit, unresponsive street lights, Clementine spotted a rectangular building with an old sign that was only held loosely attached by a few strings of cable wire. _Wally's_ was emblazoned on the crest as we approached the entrance, passing over an old mail box that had likely been torn apart by looters back when there were still people to write home to.

Glancing up at the second floor windows, I turned back to the girl with intrigue. "What? Never seen a used clothing store before?" I asked with a hint of amusement, figuring that she would've visited something similar with her family at one point or another.

Clem shrugged her shoulders before trying her hand at the door. "I dunno… just didn't think I'd see it still standing. And without walkers," she added, doubt adorning her troubled mind as I nodded in agreement, stepping over shattered glass with the spear still firmly in my hand as we heard a _crunch_ with nearly every step.

"Ditto," I told her, "but let's not assume anything yet. Never know if they might be stuck in between any of these shelves or something," I advised, scouting through some of the cupboards with interest. Most of the good stuff would likely be long gone, but with a little digging, there might've been a few things people had missed.

Wally's had been ransacked, just like pretty much every other store and building in every city or town I went to had been. It was usually the same deal, smartasses thinking they could get away with stealing all the expensive shit without getting caught by the cops, who were all too busy either trying to keep the peace or running off with the crowd. Too bad the robbers didn't clue in that it'd be a waste of time anyways, seeing's how most of the stuff they were stealing would become useless almost a month onwards. Diamond rings weren't worth as much as a hot meal or bullets, these days.

There weren't just clothes in here, apparently, as I accidentally stepped on a picture frame with the default stock photo of a family of four still placed inside of it. Nearly all of the glass windows had been smashed to pieces except for one, which held a poster on the outside telling the passersby that the place would soon be going out of business. _Not for us, at least,_ I thought to myself, ignoring the old plastic toy sets in favour of one of those camping flashlights that my parents used to keep in the garage. These things would last for a week straight if you wanted it to, but without a battery there wasn't much use for it.

"Do you think a lot of people got out in time?" Clementine asked me as I grasped onto the handle, deciding to bag it anyways in case I happened to find a working set of AA's later on.

"…no idea," I admitted, glancing only once as she started tracing her finger over a shelf lined with old video cassettes.

I could tell that she couldn't recognize any of the names as she scrunched up her face at the titles. She sneezed softly as the dust reached her nose. "I kept thinking people might've, for a little while, anyway. There wasn't really much else to hope for," she told me, as if lost in another world. "It was always easier to just… _pretend_. I thought that maybe if I could just try to be nice to everyone in my group, and wait until everything was back to normal, then I'd be fine. But…"

It was a little off-putting, seeing her being so melodramatic, but the odd thing was, I could kind of understand where she was going with this. Figuring that a couple of shot glasses would likely just get smashed in the rucksack if I placed it with everything else, I made a disappointed pout before placing them gingerly back on the shelf. "You couldn't be a kid forever," I pointed out, watching her nod in acceptance even though technically she hadn't even hit puberty yet, let alone adulthood.

"No, I couldn't."

"That's a good thing. Sucks, for sure, but," I trailed off, sighing as I spotted a rotting corpse lying beside one of the cash registers as I poked it through the eyeball for good measure, "you probably wouldn't have made it this far if you didn't change. You look like you know what you're doing, for the most part."

She grinned lightly at that, a half-smile and half-frown that I couldn't quite place the source of. "I didn't do it alone," she mentioned, trying to gauge my reaction as I headed over to the other side of the first floor. I tried my best to give away nothing, but felt the corners of my mouth tug down slightly at her insistence of group-togetherness.

I couldn't buy that line, but I knew that expecting her to follow blindly into what I was telling her was probably just as wrong. She knew that the question was hanging on the tip of my tongue the entire walk over here, as to why she'd give in to Carver's demands and not just avoid the whole confrontation altogether. But I didn't ask it, never spoke the words I'd been dying to get out. Honestly, I wasn't so sure she'd want to listen to it, anyways, so I wasn't going to try.

"Now here's the bad boy I was hoping to see," I smirked, heading off through a section of empty coat hangers towards what I had been looking for since we walked in. Clementine watched me leave, hanging out near the broken escalator before pointing upstairs.

"I should probably start checking this stuff out," she called to me, but I was too fixated on my find to turn around, so I simply nodded my head and gave her a thumbs up over my shoulder.

"Alright… now what do we have in here?" I thought aloud, brushing my fingers along the side of the lid in order to find a way to open it. A large, red donation box was sitting on the side, with the names of various locations painted on it to indicate the various spots these used clothes were going to. Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Pittsburgh… Apparently these guys liked to travel long distances to deliver the donations to kids and adults in the big cities.

I didn't really care about what it said on the tin, though. The inside was the prize I wanted to peel open, but by the time I had managed to get the cover lifted off, I once again came up woefully short. Most of the shit was gone in here, too, with only a few scraps of linens and half-torn baby blankets remaining in the dirt-riddled compartment. A stupid-looking ski jacket was sitting at the bottom that was too small even for Clem to fit in, as well as one winter boot that I knew would be a waste of time to pick up.

Discouraged, I was about to close up shop and join Clementine upstairs when I spotted the clothed finger of a glove sticking out underneath the ski jacket. Curious, I leaned over the side and carefully lowered half of my body inside, nearly falling in face-first as I brushed the ugly jacket out of the way. Sure enough, a glove had gone unchecked inside, along with its partner not too far away. One of the gloves had a hole in one of the fingers, but I paid it no mind. With how cold the nights had been getting recently, any warmth at all was probably going to be a big comfort.

There really wasn't anything else down here that I could write home about, but I wanted to give the place a second look-over while we still had time. Although, a darker part of my brain was telling me that doing this kind of foraging would likely only benefit me, seeing's how Clementine was basically consenting to Bill making her his willing prisoner.

I was about to scan over those old hangers again when suddenly, although faint from down here, I heard a quiet growl and a yelp of surprise coming from upstairs. Almost instantly fearing the worst, having flashbacks of my recent close encounter with those walkers that nearly killed me a few days prior, I sprang into action; knife at the ready as I bounded up the stairs two at a time. Clem, although tough as nails when she had to be, was definitely not immune from getting bitten, and I wasn't just going to sit by and let that happen to her.

Though I couldn't really understand why I was chugging upstairs like there was no tomorrow, or why the worry had churned my stomach so much.

By the time I had spotted her, turning to the right as I ran towards some kind of lounging area, Clementine was already sparring with one of the undead. The creature was a few inches shorter than she was, and I froze up for only a second as I watched her grapple with it. A kid… _again_. God dammit… I could've sworn that I had _just_ gone through with this a little while ago, and yet here I was, squandering at the sight of a dead girl just because it reminded me of…

 _Fuck_. I could be such a damn hypocrite sometimes.

Clem had managed to shove it back towards a window on the second floor, only avoiding its snapping teeth by shoving it back with the shaft of the wooden spear. She almost lost her footing as I swallowed my fear and slowly tried to trudge towards the squabble, but by the time I felt my legs come back to me again, Clementine had already stabilized herself.

Shoving the walker against the window, she let out a guttural yell before thrusting the monster forwards; shattering the glass as we watched it sail downwards and crack its head open on a fire hydrant down below. I couldn't tear my gaze away as it laid still, with the blood slowly turning the bright red paint darker as the liquid oozed along the side of it.

Gulping, I quickly shut my eyes as I finally came to, turning towards Clementine with concern. "You alright?" I asked, looking over her arms as she struggled to catch her breath. Shock, I guessed, but it would probably wear off soon. "It didn't bite you or anything? I, uh… heard the growl and thought… well, anyway… you good?"

"Y-yeah… I'm fine," she insisted with a wave of her hand. "Just… got the jump on me, I guess."

Figuring that she might've needed a little bit of breathing room, I scanned the rest of the top floor for any more of our undead friends that might've caught on to all the commotion up here, but so far all I could see were some dingy-looking plastic tables, an old welcome mat that looked as though it hadn't been washed in centuries, along with a fake fern tree with all of the trimmings surrounding it; a bead of lights strung around its branches in one of the tackiest displays I had ever seen.

There was a distinct smell coming from somewhere inside, though. And, to my surprise, it wasn't the usual foul odour I was used to. It was more… pleasant, maybe? I couldn't really tell, but like a hound, I tried to follow the source while also keeping a watchful gaze on Clem.

She'd leaned up against the table, practically dragging herself over towards one of the chairs as she plopped a squat and coughed into her sleeve. Seeing your life flash before your eyes was never a fun way to spend your morning, but I had a feeling that the cumulative effects of all the shit she was going through, and what she was _about_ to do, was probably messing with her head.

Plucking off her hat and running a hand through her hair, Clem caught me staring at her as I let out a sheepish smirk.

"So it _does_ come off once in a while," I teased, pulling out my knife as I tried to jam it through one of the wooden cupboards that was locked up tight. "I was starting to think that thing might've been glued to your head or something."

" _Heh_ … yeah. Just… it feels kinda wrong to not wear it all the time."

Figuring that it must've had some sort of special attachment that I didn't really want to barge in on, I nodded towards her to change the subject. "Smart haircut, though," I acknowledged, watching her grin in appreciation as she thanked me. "I hated having to do that at first. Always thought that I looked – "

"Like a boy?"

Chuckling that she seemed to have thought the same thing, I dipped my head and grunted as I started jabbing the blade through the wood. Wouldn't be much longer, now. "Pretty much, yeah. Sure beats having it land in my face all the time, though," I admitted, reminded of my teenage years when I had actually tried to dye it blue for about a month. It went about as well as could be expected.

Clementine watched me work from the table, folding her hands together and resting her chin on top of them as she tilted her head slightly. "I can't really picture you with long hair," she admitted as I pressed my weight up against the hilt of the knife.

"Well, it's not like I had it down to my ass," I joked, about to comment further when all of the sudden, after a couple more jabs with the weapon, I heard a swishing sound coming from the inside of the cupboard. "Oh fuck yeah…" I whispered, my eyes growing wider in excitement as I heard Clementine stroll up behind me.

"What is it?"

Taking the blade out of the wooden frame and glancing at the amazing find inside, I turned towards her and presented a brown, grainy substance clinging onto the metallic surface. "Coffee grinds," I told her, smirking as her mouth twisted to one of disgust. "Don't knock it 'til you try it, Clem. Trust me, I felt the same way at first, but this stuff's the _bomb_."

"Looks more like a dirt pile to me," she responded, giggling slightly as I feigned an offensive glance.

"I don't think we can be friends anymore," I kidded, not realizing what I had just admitted to until it was too late to reel the words back in. I felt a pang in my gut as my brain went into overdrive, snapping at me for making such a careless mistake. I couldn't get attached… I _wouldn't_. All it ever lead to was more trauma in the end, and I could tell that I had let myself get far too deep into this to try and dig myself out without any consequences.

But I saw something glimmer in the child's eyes; a glowing warmth as she shrugged her shoulders and bent down beside me, trying to help me open the cupboard as we yanked as hard as we could on the door. I didn't really care all that much as a big portion of the bag spilled out onto the floor, nor that Clementine tried to taste some of it as she put a little bit on her finger and nearly gagged in disgust. None of that mattered. And yet, all of it did.

Still, as I pondered over whether or not this was the right choice, down the line I knew it would all be for nothing. She'd be taken on by some crazed egomaniac soon enough, and I'd likely never see her again, alive or dead.

…shit. Better make the most of it while it lasted, then.

Once the haul had been dragged out into the middle of the floor, I watched silently as she wandered over towards the windowsill, sitting against the shattered remains as she gazed out towards the horizon. Deep down I think Clementine realized it, too – our time together was coming to an end. Brief as it was, I couldn't say that it had been quite as horrible as I'd immediately thought it would be.

Well… I guessed it was sometimes _good_ to have someone watching my back. I wouldn't admit it to Clementine, though. _Tch_ , I could only imagine the smug look on her face if I relented and said something like that.

"…I guess that's where we're headed, then?" she quizzically asked, pointing off to some impressive-looking structures in the distance as I reluctantly nodded my head.

"Yep," I replied simply, trying to scoop some of the so-called "dirt pile" into a couple of plastic baggies that were also in the locked cupboard from before. Whoever was working here definitely had their priorities straight, even though the whole bag was decaf. I had to crane my neck a bit to see, but Clem had perched herself up onto the windowsill; one leg draped over the side of the building where the window had smashed, with a forlorn look of doubt crossing her lips.

I didn't really have to take a guess as to what was on her mind, but I figured that letting her make the first move would be a better idea. After all, it was still _her_ decision in the end, not mine.

Gathering up as much of the grinds as I could and spreading it out evenly in the clear, plastic bags, I placed them carefully in the rucksack and quietly walked up behind her, staring out at the same buildings she'd pointed out earlier. A few massive cranes stood beside them, holding metal support beams that hung loosely in the wind. Clearly some of them weren't finished, and judging by the gaping hole in one of the buildings, I suspected that something must've gone terribly wrong. An overpass leading into the downtown core was really the main thing standing in our way, but for once, it actually didn't seem to be crawling with undead or clogged up with vehicles.

A part of me kind of wished it was.

"I didn't think you'd come with me," she softly mentioned a few moments later. "I mean… Carver doesn't know you or anything. You didn't have to stay. You could've left a bunch of times."

Great. _This_ again? I thought for sure that we were past this sort of thing, but apparently that little squabble we had last night was still lingering in her thoughts.

I'd been bitter about it initially, having stewed out on watch as the girl snoozed inside of that boxcar. But after coming to terms with what was really going on, and why she'd had the daylights scared out of her, I was feeling guilty for even thinking that way in the first place.

"Don't sound so miserable about it," I smirked at her hesitance. "As much as you might like, you can't get rid of me that easily, Clem."

"I thought that's what you wanted, though..."

Faltering, I tensed up as she tried to probe me for answers that I wasn't willing to give. She knew what I thought about this whole ordeal, knew that I was uncomfortable with the idea of giving myself up to a person who could bash a kid's face in and realize he could sleep at night. "Doesn't really matter what I want now, Clem. What's done is done," I sighed, wishing more than ever that we could come up with a plan to get us out of this mess. But I was fresh out of alternatives. "Besides," I continued, reminded of Clem's outburst yesterday, "a deal's a deal, right?"

"…y-yeah… sure…" she stuttered, trying not to look deflated by my comment as she put on a brave face. I frowned as she went to stand up, faking a smile in my direction as she asked if I was all set to go. Reluctantly nodding my head, I watched as she padded down the stairs, looking from behind as though I'd just plunged a dagger into her heart.

Feeling very unsure of myself, I rolled my eyes and huffed, following the girl down the steps as we made our way out into the daylight.

Was it something I said?

* * *

 _Crap_ , I thought to myself, frustrated as we hit another road block so to speak on the way through the city. There might not have been as many cars on the road as there were before, but apparently that didn't stop the city itself from falling apart at the seams.

Nearly every street corner we passed contained the rotting corpses of Charlotte's citizens, and those that didn't were often littered with piles of litter and debris. It was kind of amazing just how quickly everything fell apart without people around to maintain it, and although it was usually a depressing reminder of what a bustling city life used to be like, it was also a little mesmerizing. On several occasions I found myself just staring at the carnage, fascinated by how far this place had fallen. It reminded me of my apartment in DC, back when everything first started to turn to shit.

But this right here was going to be a bit of a challenge. The armed forces or the cops or whoever must've set up this part of Charlotte as some kind of military checkpoint, complete with a metal detector, floodlights, a full-body scanner… realistically, it seemed like whoever worked here had just stolen a bunch of shit from an airport and placed a set of them all across the street.

That's not what I was worried about, though. The big gate stretching out behind it, complete with barbed wire, bloody handprints and the scalp of some unfortunate survivor hanging off of a hook, was way more concerning.

"Think we should knock first?" Clementine suggested sarcastically, trying to play the grisly scene off with some humour to mask the bubbling fear beneath.

Snorting at that, I walked sideways through the metal detector and out the other side, half expecting the thing to start making those weird noises which used to freak me out as a kid. "So long as you're the one doing it, and not me," I joked, eyeing the massive construct with doubt. "This is a little weird, though."

"What is? I just think the whole place is creepy."

"Sure, yeah. But…" I hung back, tilting my head to the side as I lightly tapped the fence with the side of the spear, "I thought for sure that we'd have seen somebody in here by now, or at least _heard_ them on the other side."

Clem appeared at my side a moment later, face flushed as I heard her stomach rumble lowly. "Isn't that a good thing?"

Trying to open the gate was pointless, as the whole thing had been locked away by a thick, aluminum chain that wrapped around the handles of the slowly rotting wood. There was no way my knife was going to get through thick, solid steel. "Maybe. Maybe not, though," I surmised, looking upwards as I noticed a bird caught in the middle of the barbed wire; its left leg snapped as the sharp edges had pierced its lungs. The little guy looked pitiful, and I breathed a sigh out through my nose as I realized what it had been doing up there in the first place – trying to get to its hatchlings, three of which had also met a similar fate. This was starting to look more like the gateway into hell than anything else. "Who knows what could be in there?"

Thankfully Clementine didn't seem to notice the birds, instead walking down the line to examine more of the gate herself. Stopping close to what looked to be some kind of spiky pole, Clem wrapped her arms tightly around herself as she forced herself to turn away.

"We need to find a way through. See what you can find, alright?" I hollered over, not liking our chances – err, _Clem's_ – if we couldn't get past this. It was already well past mid-day, and the thought of having to do this in the dark wasn't something to look forward to.

"Isn't there another way?" she asked. "Aren't there other streets we can take?"

Shaking my head, I tried not to let the exhaustion of the past week cloud my mind as I grimaced. "This is the only way I know. If we take this road, we should be able to hit the main plaza pretty quickly. I went here once with J-"

Choking up again, though not nearly as much as before, I tried to avoid eye contact as Clementine hesitantly walked towards me. "…Jaime…?" she tried, wincing as I frowned deeply and sharply sucked in a breath of air. Even hearing the name sometimes felt like a shot to the back of the head. "S-sorry… I didn't mean...-" Clem stopped herself, looking incredibly remorseful as she too lowered her gaze to the pavement. "It's just… you were saying all that stuff before… and I kinda heard you… talking about her a few times, in your sleep."

Fuck... all this time I thought that I'd been careful with it, that I wouldn't break the mould and reveal what I'd been holding back for nearly a year. It was way easier to just let it bottle up inside when I'd been alone, but now that somebody else was wandering around with me, not to mention the fact that she kept reminding me of my sister every time I looked at her, that bottle had started to overflow.

Chewing my lip until I could taste a thin coating of blood on my tongue, I tried to keep my composure as I opened up for the first time in... well, I didn't even know at this point. It had been so long...

"She..." I stammered, trying my best to keep it as nice and short as possible. "J-Jaime... she was my... _sister_."

"...oh," she squeaked out, rubbing her scrawny arms to try and retain some manner of warmth. "So... did she...?"

Slowly nodding my head, I watched Clementine's gaze trail down to her boots as she kicked lightly at the dirt.

"I'm sorry," she told me sincerely, "That'd... be really hard. I... I know what it feels like," she added, staring up at me with eyes that had seen too much, "to lose people you care about."

Slouching as my shoulders slumped down, I rubbed my face tiredly; already deciding that I hated doing this. _Laying all my cards on the table_. It didn't ever matter who I was talking to, whether it was back in the day with Jaime or my close friends, to this little girl. Talking about personal shit sucked, and usually only managed to ever bring two things – mockery, which made me want to curl up into a ball and die, or sympathy, which I wanted about as much as a hot knife to the throat.

I wanted to brush her off, tell her to just forget I said anything and leave it alone... but something about what she said, how she'd been through this sort of thing before... Usually it was fake, and I could instantly spot out a liar when I saw one. After all, I'd more or less perfected the technique. But with Clem... it was different. She didn't even need to admit that she'd lost important people in her life. That came off her in waves – in every sad glance, every time she had to do what was necessary to survive, no matter how fucked up it might've been.

I couldn't help but wonder if it broke _her_ , too.

"Let's look for a way inside, hmm?" I intervened, wanting to focus on the task at hand instead of dwelling on the past. "There's gotta be an opening around here, or something we're just missing. I'll take a look on this end."

"…umm… yeah, sure. Alright…" she acknowledged, giving me a few more saddened looks before walking over to the left; working her way around a bike rack to see if there were any weak sections of the gate.

We left each other alone for a while then, keeping quiet save for the occasional rattling of the fence as Clem tried to push one of the beams and I tried to shove my shoulder into the side of it. Nothing was working, and this was our only avenue. I really wasn't amazing at directions to begin with, and to try and go down a bunch of side streets to get to the fountain would likely only get us lost, not to mention that this might've not been the only military checkpoint we'd come across if we were to travel elsewhere. Hell, I barely even remembered if _this_ was the right way to get there.

Were it not for that wire at the top, I could've simply planted my knife into the wood like a mountain climbing hook and climbed over, and I was about to look for something else to use when I spotted Clem taking a few paces back. "What're you thinking?" I probed, finding it a little cute as she rubbed her chin in thought.

Glancing up at the side, she pointed to the apartment building that ran a long distance down the street. "Maybe we could try to get to that ledge," she suggested, showing me the rim that hung just below the windows. It wasn't too high up, but still far too tall for either of us to reach on our own.

I wandered over towards the corner, where Clementine sat with a goofy smile on her face as she placed herself behind me. "Clem? What are you – _OOF!"_

Grabbing onto the back of my jacket and yanking herself up, I gawked at the nerve of the girl as she told me to lower myself down some more.

"Oh, fuck no! Get off, kid! I don't do piggyback rides!"

"How else are we gonna get up there? Boost me up!"

If it were any other occasion, I probably would've tossed her off without a second thought, but I begrudgingly agreed, seeing that all of our other attempts had failed so far. There really wasn't any room for me to have a say in this, anyways, since Clementine was already halfway up my back before I could even blink.

Grunting as I felt her shoes digging into my shoulders, I tried to hold her steady as she prepared for her ascent. "Clem, I swear to god, if you break my back, I'll never forgive you," I warned, technically not lying in the slightest as she ignored me and peered over the fence. "See anything?" I wondered as the wind knocked over a loosely-hanging branch onto the front windshield of a car behind us. The noise was enough to startle the both of us, but I managed to keep the girl's balance as I firmly grasped onto her shins.

The longer she stood on me, the more irritable I became. Apparently I'd somehow magically turned into a bus today, and Clem happened to think that she could hop on board for no fee whatsoever; loitering above as if she was the queen of the world.

Annoyance gave way to confusion, however, as Clementine grew quiet looking over the fortifications. "What's up?" I inquired, wishing that she would just grasp onto that ledge already so that we could get this over with.

But she wouldn't answer, instead peering down at me with a haunted turn of her head. "You're sure there's no other way around?"

Groaning, I tried in vain to get the aches out of my shoulders that were surely to come. I'd be feeling this in the morning. "Nope, this is the only way. Now c'mon, before you turn me into a hunchback," I tapped on her leg, encouraging her to climb up as she sighed deeply.

"…alright," she relented, tossing her spear carefully near the first window as she struggled to reach the rim. I kind of had a hankering to tease her about how short she was, thinking that it'd be doable with her unwarranted climb on top of a very disgruntled me, but instead I used that energy to try and push her forwards. Clem's legs squirmed from underneath as she finally got a hold of it, apprehensively standing up again and pressing her back against the concrete. "Okay… how're _you_ getting up here?"

"Working on that," I answered, knowing fully well that Clem wasn't strong enough to yank up a fully grown human being on her own. There weren't any ladders around, and unless I somehow magically turned into an NBA player, there was no way that I was going to jump and reach that height, so that was out.

Perched up against the wall, however, was a rickety-looking drain pipe that might've been able to do the trick. Placing one hand over top of it, I shook the thing a couple of times and winced at how easily the pipe was coming loose. This was gonna be an adventure and a half.

Planting my foot firmly on the bottom, I pushed myself up and tossed the spear over to Clementine for safe keeping. "You sure that's a good idea?" she questioned, wandering over as she tried in vain to keep the metal from giving out any further.

My legs felt wobbly as I tried to climb, grasping on for dear life as I could feel my body start to slip up. "Probably not, but it's worth a try," I told her, looking up towards Clem as she held out a hand for me to grab on to. "Ok… you've gotta be really balanced on there, Clem. I'm probably heavier than anything you've had to carry before."

"Maybe if you eased up on the rations…" she teased, cracking a smirk as I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Totally _not_ what I meant."

"Uh-huh."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"You said it, not me," Clem replied as I rolled my eyes in amusement. The kid was good. _Real_ good. And it kind of sucked that, deep down, that wit really didn't come out more often, not that she really had the chance to let it show from time to time anyways. I found myself drawn to it, wanting to hold onto that bright personality and never let it leave her.

Unfortunately, that was kind of hard to do when I realized that all of this effort was going towards some asshole who didn't deserve the time of day. I imagined that the fun tended to stop whenever Carver entered a room.

My fingertips brushed against Clementine's for a split second as I heard a low groan underneath my weight, with the drain pipe sagging downwards as I let out a cruse under my breath. "Quick! Reach!" she pressured urgently, and I did as suggested as I practically launched myself forward; nearly bringing myself and the girl both tumbling down to the asphalt when I grabbed her hand. We both crashed into the wall, breathing heavily as I pressed my hand against Clem's chest to keep her from falling off.

"Well…" I gasped for air, letting the back of my head hit the bricks with a resounding _thud_ , "that probably could've gone a little better."

"Yeah… at least we made it, though."

Glancing down at my normally-troubled companion, I nudged her in the shoulder as a few small beads of stone crinkled off the ledge surrounding us. "Since when did you start turning into Little Miss Sunshine over here? All hopeful and stuff."

A weak smile appeared on her face then, shrouded only by a thin layer of sleepiness hidden just beneath the surface. Clem probably hadn't had a good night's rest in years, but as usual, she never voiced these concerns. "It comes and goes, I think," she freely admitted as I chuckled a little bit. "It's better than being miserable all the time. I hate doing that."

"You're wise beyond your years, kid," I nodded, staring back out across the street as I set the spear down on my lap. In an effort to catch my breath, I resorted to watching as a ripped grocery bag floated away in the wind; rolling over the pavement without a care in the world, and joining into a cluster of fallen leaves that were forming a sort of "mini-tornado" right in front of our eyes.

"…this helps, though," she spoke up again, surprising me as I figured she had nothing left to add.

"Hmm?"

"Being out here. With you," she elaborated, staring up at the clouds as if she was watching an airplane fly by. "Kinda helps me take my mind off of… _things_."

It was a weird feeling, right then. Pretty shitty since we both knew how this would end, but not so shitty as to make things inherently awkward between us. So instead of replying right away, I took the opportunity to look out over the area we were trying to get into, and my stomach plummeted.

The place could only be described as a graveyard. Not literally, but with the amount of dead bodies strewn all over the place, some lined up neatly while others were carelessly thrown about here and there, it was the only word that came to mind. You could tell which corpses were older from the thin, white blankets covering their bodies from head to toe, tied down with a thick, yellow rope so that none of the covers would blow away in the wind. Crows were feasting like vultures on the decaying ones, with one of the birds ripping off a piece of flesh like it was a worm in the ground. A few grave sites were dug up, with some of the bodies being buried with a makeshift headstone made out of sticks, but there were quite a few empty ones, too; one of which had a man's leg sticking out the side as if the occupants had had to run away in a hurry.

Judging by the looks of things though, none of them got very far. "Sure you don't wanna just stay up here, then?" I pried, feeling uneasy as a walker with its both of its legs snapped off turned its head towards us on the ground. "I could probably try busting one of these windows. We sneak inside, kick back and relax… I'm starting to like that plan a lot more, now."

"Hmm… this isn't the comfiest chair in the world," she joked as I gave a sad smile, for some reason slightly dismayed that she wasn't taking my suggestion to heart. "Besides, you'd probably get bored sitting in there all day."

"You'd be surprised. I can find ways of entertaining myself."

"Like what?"

Reminiscing on days long past, I stood up as Clem and I both started to shuffle across the window ledges. " _I Spy_ is usually a classic. Kinda hard to do when you're by yourself, but whatever," I remarked, spear back in hand as I pointed over to where we should be jumping off. "Let's see… skipping rocks was always a favourite, when there was actually a stream and no danger around. Oh, and counting. _Lots_ of counting."

"Ugh," Clem scoffed, watching my every move as I hopped off the ledge and landed on top of a set of cardboard boxes down below. "I think I'd _rather_ be fighting walkers."

Peering out over the blocked-off area, I held my weapon out in front as I scanned the place for any signs of movement. "Careful what you wish for," I whispered, beckoning for the girl to follow me as we ventured onwards.

 _Eerie_ would've been selling this place far too short. There wasn't one inch of the entire complex that wasn't either covered in blood, riddled with garbage or had a body in the way. I punctured a hole through the skull of that walker I had seen earlier nice and quietly, but I was still unnerved as we rounded the corner and passed even more corpses. It almost felt like half of the state had come to bury their dead ones here. Not exactly a vacation destination if I were to say so myself.

"Creepy…" Clementine spoke out in hushed syllables, brushing a severed hand off of her leg as she accidentally bumped into me from behind. "Sorry! Sorry…" she apologized more quietly, trying her best to stick close as we inched more towards the main road. "Don't you think we should put on the walker guts? Just in case?"

" _Tch_ , you might be the first person I've met who's actually _suggested_ that," I remarked before shaking my head. "Probably not worth it, though. We're nearly there. Just gotta keep pushing forward."

"But what if we get caught?"

"Then we'll double back and cut them off from the sides. Don't worry, we've got this," I tried to reassure, and although I couldn't see her right there, I could hear a sigh of admittance as we had to make our way by some kind of old paint store. "See? There's our way out, just through that – "

Cutting myself off and staring wide-eyed and straight ahead, I didn't even care that Clem bumped into me again as I froze in place. A mountain of bodies blocked our path, with severed heads sticking out on wooden spikes that adorned the back exit for the fence as a faded sign for the dead was stapled onto a telephone pole. The words had mostly been erased, but making out the word "traitors" was plenty enough of an explanation as the quiet growls of some undead creatures reached my ears.

"Jesus…" I whispered hoarsely. I'd never seen anything like this before, with so many of the dead bodies having been burned in one massive bonfire – one last _fuck you_ to the poor bastards who had this terrible fate. "W-we should go…" I remarked, utterly lost as to why Clem simply walked on ahead of me and launched her spear into the head of one of the walkers that hadn't died for yet a second time.

My insides churned at the horrible smell, but watching Clementine scoping out potential exit points near the dogpile of bodies strengthened my resolve. Call me crazy, but I could've sworn that Clem looked _calm_ in the face of all of this. Relaxed, even, as if she'd had to do this a billion times already.

The groaning sounds that we both have become so accustomed to sprung up as we approached the site, only getting louder as I poked one of the carcasses with the sharp end of the stick. "Shit…" I murmured, darting my head to the young charge a moment later. "Get back, Clem! There's more underneath!"

Most likely having survived the barbecue session by being squished underneath the rest of their charred brothers and sisters, about five or six walkers tried their hardest to climb out and grab onto their next snack. A couple of them were stuck in between rotting arms and legs, but the other four had managed to crawl out and march towards us.

"The knees, remember? Go for the knees!" I called out, kicking one of the walkers as he toppled to the ground. No later though did the next one shamble its way towards me, its teeth snapping like a piranha mere inches from my cheek. I could smell the guy's breath as its saliva poured down its chin, but with a few shoves into the pile, I pinned the beast down and struck through its skull; grossed out as its eye got stuck onto the spear like some kind of rotting shish kabob.

With the other walker still struggling to get up, I jammed it through the beast's decomposed skull, but cursed my luck as I heard the shaft of the spear start to crack.

Clem was struggling a little bit with the knee trick, understandable given her size and relatively new adjustment to the technique, but she was nonetheless holding her own as I charged over to help. She'd already stabbed one walker through the mouth and out the other side by the time I got there, and as she planted her foot on the third walker's chest to try and pull the weapon out, I took out my knife and wrestled the fourth fucker to the ground; watching it thrash against my weight only for a split second before getting a swift blow to the brain.

Clementine nodded in thanks as she helped me to my feet, but we couldn't stop for a rest as, sure enough, the noise from our little episode had attracted some more unwanted guests from that paint store we walked by earlier.

"Why don't these things ever let up?" I wondered aloud, not caring that the front of my jacket was once again drenched in walker blood. It was usually more of a surprise when it _wasn't_. "No, no, no, no, no… Dammit, we're gonna get surrounded at this rate…"

"Got any ideas?"

"…just one," I replied shadily, eyeing the walker pile with interest as one of the paint store walkers put a crack in the glass door. "But you're _really_ not gonna like it."

Seeing where my cone of vision was lining up, Clementine seemed to put two and two together as she went slack-jawed. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"Double-time, Clem! Climb up on top of them, now!"

"Seriously?! Are you crazy?!" she retorted, unable to believe her eyes as I pulled on the thin hair of one of the bodies and slithered over the rest. "There are still some trapped down there! What are you – "

"No time to argue! C'mon, Clem – it has to be _now!_ " I called out, my tone only growing even more urgent when the walkers in that store had almost broken through. "They're almost here, kid! Just trust me! You haveto listen to me, _Jaime!_ "

Clem's surprised glance did nothing to help me recover from the fucked-upitude of what just spewed out of my mouth. I could hear her calling out my name, begging me to play with her on those warm, summer evenings when the both of us were still kids; still thinking that the world wasn't as shit as I now knew it could be.

 _Let's be pirates, Jane! I can be the captain, and you can be the first… uh, the fir…_

 _Ugh, would you leave me alone already? Quit being such a baby! Nobody wants to play your stupid games!_

 _But… you_ love _playing pirates… And Mommy said you'd play with me…_

 _Yeah? Well, Mom lied! Like she_ always _does… and it's "first mate", doofus…_

 _So… does that mean you'll come?_

I didn't want to remember her face that day, or the way she cried and sprinted back into the house after I flat-out refused to give in. I hated remembering Mom's scolding tongue-lashing, or the way that Dad kind of just walked in, gave me a disapproving shake of his head, and walked upstairs without another word. I couldn't stand the way I glared at Jaime afterwards, hiding behind the counter with her head poking out and tears staining her cheeks; eyes wide in fear as I told her I hated her for ratting me out. I didn't mean it, of course, but that day stood out. It _always_ did. That afternoon crushed her spirit.

I was the worst sister in the world. Wasn't even close, no contest.

But I wasn't losing my mind over it. No, that much I knew for sure. It wasn't about the fact that I spent much of my childhood being a complete bitch to one of the few people who actually wanted to… _get close_ … _ech_.

Deep down, lost in thought atop a pile of dead men and women in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, I was slowly starting to realize it.

I couldn't forgive myself. For any of it. From the day she was born, to the day she died. I let Jaime down so fucking much, and my last-ditch effort to tie things back together with a sister who was better off without me now felt like a slap in the face.

" _JANE!"_

Blankly, I blinked a few times as Clementine made her way up the walker pyramid. She was calling out my name, shaking me on the arm with a frightened look in her eyes as the remaining walkers advanced. They'd broken through the glass door, and there were way too many for us to take on without guns. We'd be slaughtered in seconds if we tried to take them head-on.

"We have to get out of here!" Clem insisted, swiping a walker across the face with the bit of her spear as I watched it clumsily roll back to the pavement. "I… I don't wanna die here, Jane! Please…"

Maybe it was the way she pleaded, or maybe it was the resolve in her eyes that my sister never had by the end, but something finally clicked in me as I snapped out of my reverie. "…th-the fence," I weakly stated, not even completely certain that she heard me as I turned around and jammed my spear into one of the wooden planks. Bending down, I told Clem to step up onto my hand as I planted her onto the haft of the weapon. "Don't look back, Clem! Just jump!"

"What about you?!"

"I'll be right behind you, just go!"

I turned back around to face our pursuers, fully prepared to try and cut them off so as to not lead them right back to the person who'd managed to really put this whole "loner" thing into serious question. It wouldn't be putting my life on the line, since I wasn't going to let it get that far, but if that girl could get out of this in one piece, then I'd do my best to hold them at a distance.

What I _didn't_ expect was for Clem to yank back on the collar of my jacket, nearly choking me as I glared in her direction. "Clem, what the hell?! What are you – "

"You're coming with me!" she demanded, grabbing onto my wrist and trying to pull me closer to the fence. "Forget about them! We need to leave! _Both_ of us!"

"Get over that fucking fence already!"

Instead of just doing what I asked, I was baffled as Clementine stepped down from the spear and folded her arms across her chest; stubbornly frowning as I plunged my knife into an encroaching walker.

"God dammit…" I growled, having to resort to following her demands as I placed myself up onto the spring; feeling the shaft cracking even further as we both stepped on at the same time.

Checking for the spot that didn't contain the barbed wire on this side, Clementine kicked one of the walkers in the head before climbing over, with the spear bouncing on one end as I followed close behind.

* * *

 _Chop-chop-chop!_

Three solid strokes was all it took as I laid out the few remaining rations we had left in the rucksack. A strand of celery cut into pieces remained on the table, and I nibbled on the end of one of the sticks as the vegetable attacked my taste buds. Celery certainly wasn't the most appetizing thing in the world, and I could've really gone for some ranch dipping sauce, but tonight, after narrowly escaping death at the hands of a bunch of the undead, I figured that a little victory snack was in order.

Of course, I wouldn't have been freaking out over it if Clementine had just done as I asked, but still. Any amount of nourishment, no matter how small, made me feel as though I was eating a feast.

There were a few blueberries in the bottom of the bag too, but, much to our disappointment, were mostly squished under the weight of everything else. They were still edible, but the juice had mostly run out, leaving a shell in its place as Clem popped one into her mouth.

"Really wishing that flashlight worked," she broke the ice, adorning a neutral grin as her face was lit up by the dim moonlight. I'd placed it in the middle of the table, more for shits and giggles than anything, but if the dead could come back to life as they had, I was willing to bet that one more messed up thing might not turn the world _completely_ upside down. And hey, if I could somehow magically get flashlights to work properly without a set of batteries, then I was convinced that I'd be set for life.

Looking a little unnerved as I started to spin the knife in a circle on the table, Clem too grabbed a piece of celery and slid out of the booth.

To my left was the door to the tacky-looking local sub shop we had stumbled upon in our search for a place to spend the night. The place was named after the owner, "Emilio's", or at least that's what we thought. Scavengers had torn this place to shreds already, even going after a few of the old soccer team photos the place had sponsored back in the day. Clem had mentioned playing the sport upon entering the restaurant, recalling that as bad as it was, she still missed playing on the field. She grew a little quiet after reminiscing on the pride she'd see on her parents' faces, and how the contests to see who could balance as many popsicles on her teammates' heads was enough to bring a smile to her face. That, and apparently about an hour of time in the bathroom back home trying to get the goop out of her hair.

It hadn't really sunk in yet that I wasn't the only one who had lost people. I mean, yeah, I figured she had at some point, but it was a rare thing whenever she dug up the past. Clem seemed to be more comfortable with keeping those kinds of things tossed under the rug, and so when she actually brought up her parents for the first time, I didn't really know what to say.

On the right was the window I was staring out of, my breath fogging up the glass as I lazily doodled a "J" for my name against it. My knife, now forgotten as it laid still on the table, still had some tiny celery bits sticking to the bladed edge. Thank god I remembered to clean it off a little bit before I used the damn thing.

Clementine had meandered over to the front counter, setting her sights on one of the old-timey spinning chairs that hadn't been completely chewed up. A flash of childlike wonder graced her eyes as she spun on it slightly, listening to the _creak_ as the metal twisted in place. Before long, though, the image fizzled out. I couldn't help but be transfixed as I watched – it wasn't every day that I got to see Clem actually _enjoying_ herself, after all. You were more likely to see a shooting star on a bright, sunny afternoon.

"…you shouldn't have done that."

She glanced a little bit over her shoulder, rolled her eyes and turned back towards the front counter, staring past the toaster oven and into the kitchen behind it. I knew she wouldn't want to talk about this, but I was insistent. There was absolutely no reason for her to expect me not to bring up that incident, and now that we were safe for one of the rare moments of the day, there was no better time than the present.

At least, that's what I figured.

Sighing, I rested my back against the glass and casually placed my hands in my jacket pockets. "I'm not mad or anything," I promised, honestly not holding any ill-will towards the child as she snorted over from her spot at the counter.

"Yeah right."

"Seriously. Cross my heart and hope to… well, _live_ , I guess," came my attempt at humour, falling on deaf ears as Clem started drumming a stead beat on the table. "Look… I'm not pissed that you came back for me, as weird as that sounds. But sometimes… sometimes it's better to – "

"Stop," she tiredly interrupted, finally spinning around to face me as she shook her head. "I know what you want to tell me, but I wasn't just gonna leave you there."

Eyes lingering on an old milk crate that'd been left on the tile floor, I felt my shoulders sag as my thoughts betrayed me. "You don't always get that luxury," I whispered, not really meaning for Clem to hear that part as I caught her glancing sadly over at me. "What? You look like somebody just drove over your puppy or something."

Clementine really looked like she wanted to say something, as if it were right on the tip of her tongue, but she instead chose to shut her mouth and shrug it off. "Nothing. It's nothing," she told me with about the same believability as me whenever I tried to convince my parents that I _wasn't_ responsible for spilling grape juice all over the carpet. "Never mind."

"I can tell there's something you're dying to get out. Spill."

"It's just… back there, when… when you called me _Jaime_ …" she started off, making my throat tighten as I sheepishly turned away from her prying gaze. "I know you didn't mean it… But I kept calling out to you, and you just looked… _lost_."

Cringe-worthy was probably a better sentiment in my opinion, but nonetheless, Clementine was right on the nose. I didn't expect for her to be so perceptive of that kind of thing, or maybe it was just that I was being painfully obvious – standing up there like an idiot, waiting for the walkers to come and munch on my bones. Here I was berating Clem for not heading over the fence when I told her to, when I was probably putting the both of us in harm's way just as much, if not _more_.

Unable to find my voice, I heard the girl fiddle with a loose thread on her long-sleeved shirt. "…I was just wondering if you were okay," she added, eliciting a shaky breath from my lips that Clem didn't seem to catch onto.

 _Tch_. The kid was as sharp as a whip, that was for sure. After the "incident", I hadn't ever really thought that there'd be anyone left out here to have actually filled the void that Jaime left behind. Clem couldn't ever fully do that, nor did I expect her to, but while all of this bullshit may have taken a couple of years off of my already abysmally short life (because let's be real – I wasn't going to make it to retirement age), it still felt… _nice_. Nice to have somebody there to cover you, nice to have somebody to talk to when the nights grew cold and dark.

It wasn't fair of me to compare the two – Clem and my sister. They weren't the same person, and Jaime's ghost would probably come back to haunt me if I ever even suggested having another sister thrown into the mix.

But as my glossy eyes traced over Clem's face, riddled with hesitation as she chewed on her bottom lip absentmindedly, I felt that if there was going to be anyone in this fucking world left to open up and admit my mistakes to, she'd be the best candidate.

My arms ran cold as I began, whether from my nerves being shot or the chilly, night air, I wasn't sure.

"…I dragged my sister across four states," I started, having to rehearse the lines in my head after having tucked them away for so long. "Started off in DC when it all went down. Jaime… she'd come up to visit me from our old house in Virginia."

"Oh… you guys weren't still…?"

" _Nnnah_ , I bought an apartment in Washington a while back. Let's just say… well, it was kind of either do that, or live on the streets. Didn't really feel like living in a box, so there ya go," I shrugged as Clementine nodded her head attentively. "After a while… shit just started hitting the fan. Washington was a death trap, and so was almost every other big city or town we went to. It never ended."

I still was having trouble comprehending the sudden shift from dead silence to the full-blown therapy session I was participating in, but once I got going, I was finding it almost impossible to hold it back any longer. Maybe I needed this, after all.

My eyes caught the sight of a bunch of half-baked loaves of bread still sitting in the toaster oven as I paused to collect my thoughts, all rotten after years of being exposed as the dough was turning into a yeast and mold party. "Jaime… she was never really… _built_ for this world, if that makes any sense," I frowned, reflecting on the days and nights that seemed to drag on forever. "Every morning she'd say she wasn't getting up. Every day, the same damn thing. She'd sit there, staring at the ceiling, pretending that I didn't exist," I ranted on, but upon seeing that the conversation was making my sister seem like an emotionless monster, I derailed it for the time being to try and paint her in a better light. "Wasn't always like that, though," I chuckled softly, remembering times now long gone. "Being a big sister is… well, it's funny. Real easy to be mean."

"Hmm?"

"Y'know… hide her toys. Make fun of her bad haircut. _Give_ her the bad haircut. On purpose," I listed off, choosing not to go into the very worst things I'd done so as not to turn this whole thing into a sob story. "I mean, I did put the gum there. Figured I should get it out – at least before somebody else did it for me."

Clementine let out a breath at that, a half-sigh, half giggle as she spoke up again. "You didn't…"

"Yep. Gotta say though, it could've turned out a lot worse. Thank god I used safety scissors."

"Nice," she sarcastically smirked, glancing up at my head as if she might've thought that I ended up doing that to myself, too. "Is that really what it's like having a sister?"

A lone walker wandered along the street outside as I sunk down a little in my seat. We'd blocked the door with some boxes and secured the place pretty well by placing an old set of kitchen tweezers into the door handle, but I'd have rather just stayed out of sight from it all the same. I think I'd had enough of the undead for one day. "Wasn't all bad, no. Just something that came with the territory, I think," I shrugged, following the walker's trail until he disappeared into the gap of some of the buildings. "We used to go to this amusement park every summer back home. Jaime always dragged me to the biggest roller coasters she could find... called me a wuss whenever I told her I got nauseous on them. But… the best part really wasn't about the rides at all," I trailed off, preferring to remember this version of my sister than the one who came later. "Nobody ever knew us there. Nobody ever cared. I didn't have to constantly try to act "cool" in front of anyone, and I'd try to pretend that we _weren't_ sisters. Just… friends."

Quiet settled in between the two of us for a while, neither party really knowing where to continue from there. I'd been hoping all that time that I hadn't just been making things awkward, but if there were ever any gripes among the child sitting across the counter from me, then she sure as hell didn't show it. She pressed her lips together, mulling over my words as she nodded and soaked in everything I was telling her. I waited silently in the dark, sort of wanting to probe through the young girl's mind; pick her brain for what she was thinking about.

Taking a second to realize just how creepy that sounded in my head, I turned away as a few howls pierced through the night from outside.

"Those don't sound like walkers," Clem noted, jogging over to the next booth over as she placed her hand upon the glass. Smirking at her child-like curiosity, I shook my head and stared out a little bit down the road. We were holed up right across the street from the fountain, having picked a rest stop directly on Tryon Street to make it a little easier on ourselves in the morning, regardless of what came next.

"Coyotes, most likely."

"Really?"

"Wouldn't surprise me. With all the people gone, animal packs would probably have a field day around here." Directing my attention back to Clem, I watched as the brim of her hat shot higher on her face after trying to get a closer look to the outside world. "Nature's always got a way of taking shit back."

Pensively, Clementine sank back into the seat after not seeing any wildlife activity out on the road. They must've been pretty far off. "Do you think they'll be dangerous?" she grilled, likely uneasy about anything right now since our already short list of weapons had gotten cut down to just my knife and Clem's spear. Honestly, the things were basically just glorified pieces of wood, but for our purposes, they did a pretty satisfactory job.

I was doubtful that we'd really feel the pressure tonight, though. "Not likely. They'll probably be out hunting for other animals – rabbits, mice, that kind of thing," I described, sounding more like a documentary host than a twenty-six year old with a weird-ass obsession with survival. "It'd be kind of cool to have one as like some sort of guard dog, though. Or maybe a wolf. _That'd_ be pretty kick-ass."

"At least until he bit your hand off."

"We'd cross that bridge when we got to it. Quit trying to ruin my fun," I pouted facetiously, feeling satisfied with the outcome when Clementine sprouted a tiny grin. As we settled back into an uneasy quiet, however, I frowned as she stared longingly out towards the fountain. Sure enough, two or three different bank towers rose above the majority of the other buildings, with one of them apparently having been getting some new furnishings before the dead came back to life. Construction work had been rampant, with traffic cones, scaffolding, orange safety vests and unused equipment being left behind in the wake. "So…" I trickled off, almost deciding to leave the question hanging before I spoke up again, "what's your plan for tomorrow?"

I'd found it easier to talk to the girl after realizing that she hardly ever responded straight away. She took her time, collected her thoughts and never rushed through an answer. I'd started to appreciate that, having been so used to people talking out their ass that often I just gave up trying to hold a conversation altogether. Her nose twitched as she shrugged.

"Walk up there, hope for the best," Clem told me, giving a solid teenage impression that I'd probably seen a hundred times on Jaime. Seeing my narrowed gaze, she turned her head towards me and shrugged again. "What else can I do? We don't have any guns."

Rubbing the bridge of my nose tenderly, I sighed but reluctantly nodded my head. Clem had a point there. Although we probably wouldn't have even been having this conversation if we just dipped like I told her to, if she really wanted to see her friends alive and well again, the only way to do that would be to play by his rules for the time being. "…I get it, Clem. Really. It's just… well, I've known guys like Carver in the past," I conceded, garnering her interest as she folded her arms over the back of the booth seat, resting her chin on top. "They have their own set of rules, their own way of doing things. And they're definitely not the kind of people who like to give up their toys."

"Why are you telling me all this?" she continued to question, looking as though she had already made up her mind the second that she had talked to the devil himself. She could never make it easy on me, huh? Why did I always end up seeming like the devil's advocate in every conversation we ever had?

I couldn't be mad at Clem for this, though. Really, this whole thing could've been easily avoided if I had just left the radios well enough alone. I just wished there was another way out of this, for the _both_ of us, that she could accept. I wished there was a way I could've shaken off this feeling of obligation towards her, and that suggesting an alternative plan that didn't involve a bunch of people who I frankly didn't care nearly enough about wouldn't end up with Clementine turning her back on me, the same way I did to her the first time around.

"…I know he's the one who gave you that branding. I don't need to be a genius to figure that one out," I stated, not really looking for an argument as she winced. The cat was pretty much out of the bag, anyways. "And I know you don't want to talk about it… but is this really what you want? To go back to the guy who hurt you in the first place?"

"It's not about what I want, you know that…"

"Clem… you can be your own person – you don't owe these people anything!" I told her, hoping that one last ditch effort might've been enough to win her over. If this didn't work, nothing would. "We could just… _leave_. The both of us. Right now." I saw her stiffen at that, bottom lip quivering so much that for a split second I thought I saw her considering the proposition. Trying to appear less brash, I lowered my voice, looked straight into her eyes and spoke to her directly, clearly. Not as a kid, not as a burden, but as an equal. "Don't you ever want to know what it's like to live your own life?"

This was it. My trump card. This was the last hand I had to play, and I was going all in. She was stewing over in the booth, and for better or worse, I could tell that she was at least thinking about it; mulling over the possibilities, of what that freedom could do for her. She wouldn't have anything tying her down, could go anywhere she wanted, _be_ whoever she wanted.

But the more that I thought about it, the more torn I became. If I was so intent on having her set off on her own, wouldn't that just mean that _I_ was holding her back then, too? Was I trying to make the decisions for her? Was I being selfish for wanting her to go this way?

…N-no… no way… it… I couldn't have been…

"They're my family, Jane," she firmly responded after what felt like an eternity of waiting in the sub shop that still hadn't quite gotten rid of that deli smell. "I can't abandon them. Not to Carver."

Letting my head roll back and releasing an audible sigh through my nose, I felt myself chuckling despite myself. Welp, so much for that shit. "You're a pretty tough negotiator. You know that?" I stated as Clementine smirked, coming over to sit across from me in the booth as I peered over. "Would've made a pretty mean lawyer, if things had panned out differently."

"Maybe," she fully admitted, "but getting yelled at sucks, though."

"Won't get any argument from me," I noted, snapping my fingers suddenly as I pulled the rucksack up onto the table. "Almost forgot about this, but uhh… here," I quietly motioned, presenting the pair of gloves I'd found hidden away in that donation box as Clementine grasped them in her hands. "It'll probably be a little small on ya, but better than nothing, I guess."

Placing them gingerly on her hands, Clem laughed as one of her fingers slipped through the hole; wiggling it around as she basked in the warmth. "Thanks," she nodded gratefully, turning to me a few moments later as she hesitated. Confused, I turned behind me to see if there was something wrong, even going so far as to check my jacket to see if I'd spilled anything on it. "What about you?"

"Huh?" I questioned dumbly. "What about me?"

"Won't you get cold, too? You should take these… you're the one that found them."

"Keep 'em, Clem. That's what I've got pockets for," I emphasized, noting in my head about how little she had on to stave off the cold. Besides, these likely weren't made of the best material in the world, and having warm hands didn't exactly make up for the fact that she'd be freezing everywhere else.

Which is why I was so bewildered when, after a few seconds of mulling it over, Clementine took off one of her gloves and practically forced it into my hand. "Here," she went on, "there's no sense in the both of us being cold out here."

Sliding the wool item over my hand, I laughed at how ridiculous this entire ordeal was. Having one mitt might as well have been the same as having nothing at all, but if me taking it would somehow make her feel better, then damn it, I'd play along. "I feel like Michael Jackson," I mentioned, pretending to do the moonwalk with two of my fingers as Clem cracked a large grin; the both of us chuckling amongst ourselves in spite of it all. By the time it died down, and I could feel a big set of yawns coming on, Clementine volunteered to take first watch, claiming that she likely wouldn't be able to sleep tonight anyways.

The comfiest spot in the whole place was definitely the booth over in the corner of the room, with the wooden wall acting as a sort of back support while I laid the rucksack underneath my head. There were still a bunch of hard, plastic items in there from before, but for the most part, I could've almost sworn that this was the closest thing to a pillow that I was ever going to get. Clementine watched me from her spot near the front windows, and although it was a little odd having somebody looking over like that, having not had that kind of undivided attention in years, it was also a little comforting to know that I could possibly get a few uninterrupted winks in for a change.

Shuffling my back around to find a spot that agreed with me, I shut my eyes and tried to rest.

…

…

…

…

"…you're not coming with me tomorrow."

Cracking one eye open, I sat up a little bit and struggled to see Clementine's face from across the way. I still wasn't sure if I'd heard that right. "What're you talking about?" came my muffled reply, already sounding like I was halfway to la-la-land. "Am I gonna hit them from the side or something?"

"No," she shook her head, seeming to shrink in on herself as she placed her hands on her lap. "I mean… I'm leaving tomorrow. Alone."

Fully propped up at this point, I planted my boots on the floor as I rubbed my eyes in discomfort. "Are you friggin' kidding me?" I asked disbelievingly. "After all of this, after everything we literally _just_ went through… you're telling me to leave?"

"…I'm sorry…"

"You're _sorry_ ," I half-mocked, lazily slapping my hands on my thighs as I huffed and rolled my eyes. Absolutely un-fucking-believable. "Mind telling me why you didn't mention this, oh I dunno, like _yesterday?_ Can't believe I'm getting dropped like a sack of – "

"Would you _listen_ to me?!" she snapped suddenly as my eyes widened, my voice caught in my throat as her booming tone echoed throughout the shop. Neither of us spoke for a bit, worried that whatever was creeping around outside might've heard us, but when nothing came crawling around, I turned back towards Clem as she tried to explain herself. "I know what you said before, about our "deal" and everything…" she said to me, trying to make the dismissal seem less scathing than it actually was. "…but this isn't your fault. None of it is. I don't want to force you into something like this."

"Clem…"

"No," she repeated herself, hugging her knees to her chest and turning away from me. "I already lost people to Carver… I don't wanna lose you, too…"

Deflated and at a loss for words, I stared at Clementine's back for what seemed like forever until exhaustion was finally beginning to win me over. She knew that I had no interest whatsoever in being the puppet of some guy, let alone a person whom I'd never actually even met for real.

It was kind of weird, not being the one abandoning the person this time around. I'd gotten pretty good at keeping my distance to most that I'd travelled with, all the way back to the group I was a part of back in Washington. Sure, we'd gotten along decently enough by the end, but I never really _attached_ myself to any particular person. Jaime held the sole, prestigious spot for that, and once that was over, leaving things behind was easy. It almost became second nature to me.

Clem wasn't telling me this to punish me. If anything, it was almost like a release. I wouldn't need to worry about getting chased off by a bunch of gun-crazed lunatics, and I could head off on my own again; leaving this place behind to try and head south for a little TLC.

Wasn't that the goal all along? I thought that I knew what I wanted, and that this would've been the best plan I could've possibly come up with… but now I wasn't so sure. Without Clementine… the road was already starting to seem a lot longer than I'd thought.

Rolling over onto my side, I stared vacantly at the wall in front of me, disappointed thoughts shrouding my mind until I finally fell asleep.

* * *

I used to hate having blinds on my windows back home. They were always so expensive to install, were a bitch to fix if you pulled on the string too tightly, and never covered my bedroom window enough to give me a couple more hours of sleep in the mornings with the sun blinding my eyes. I always thought they were a waste of time, and like most of the things in my one-bedroom apartment, I opted for the cheaper alternative of curtains. The dust I could deal with, and it made living out my meager existence in that cesspool of a building a little more bearable.

Funny how it took the worst event in human history to make me fully appreciate the simple, stupid things like that even more. The sun was blaring through the dirt-covered windows, made all the more visible as dust particles littered the air. It was a pretty cool sight, and I could appreciate the days where I could just sit back and pay attention to all the little details. Boring as shit, but that was pretty much the story of my life at this point. Excitement was something I could probably do without, anyways, since all it ever lead to was a gun in my face.

My legs were numb as I nearly rolled myself out onto the floor, shaking them awake as the pins and needles effect took hold. All things considered, it was a pretty decent sleep. I got something that wasn't just a fucking rock or a tree, and I wasn't constantly pelted by the wind chill like I was on most nights.

Ruffling the bag out to get rid of the wrinkles left by the implant from my head, I brushed off the side of the sack and curiously peered inside. It looked as though Clem had taken the radio from it during the night, most likely figuring it'd look suspicious if she didn't show up with it when she marched to her death. Clever girl.

I was about to head over to the front, ready to apologize for having slept through my own night shift, when I spotted our only remaining spear sitting idly on the table where the girl had been last night. Clem was nowhere to be found, and what's more, our barricade had been moved over slightly to make room for her exit.

"Shit…" I cursed out loud, scooping up the weapon as well as the rucksack before venturing outside. It was still early, since the sun had just begun to rise and the small, furry animals had just begun to awaken, but I wasn't really paying attention to any of that. I knew where she'd be, if Clem was even still _alive_ at all, and although I knew that she figured not saying goodbye would be for the best, I still wanted to at least see her off one last time.

I pulled out onto the street at a jogging pace, passing a couple of night clubs and bars along the way before finally coming to the outskirts of the banking district, when I finally saw her. Clem was facing away from me, standing skittishly over by the fountain.

When I saw the person she was talking to, backed up by a sizeable force of people, my blood ran cold.

"You know, sweetheart, in a way, I'm kind of glad you dragged us out here. It made scouting for a new home that much more rewarding," the bastard smugly told her, placing his hands on his hips as he stared down at the girl; his eye still not covered up even after all this time. There were a handful of people I recognized standing behind him, including a very saddened Mike and Bonnie, as well as a handful of the people I saw over by Parker's Run. But there was a sizeable difference in this group, however, since that Kenny guy along with the man who got shot, Nick, were nowhere to be seen. Carlos, too, and the woman they had laid out on the stretcher that I never caught the name of. "I'll cut to the chase," Carver went back to his dictatorship stance, holding his hand out for the radio as Clem dropped it into his palm. "You, ma'am, have got a _lot_ of catching up to do. A shit-load. So I'm going to have to find some way for you to start making it up to me."

There was something eerily disturbing in the way he spoke, and even though it was kind of difficult to hear from so far away, I could no less make out most of the words. Carver knew how to use leverage to his advantage, and he was doing it well, unfortunately. Clem, for her part, was holding her own well enough; staring him down with the same intensity that I'd seen in her beforehand. You could tell she was terrified, but it still took some serious kahunas to stand up to a person like that.

"Where are the rest of them?!" she demanded, voice cracking a tad as Carver smirked. "Y-you said you wouldn't hurt them! You promised!"

Bill turned his head back to the group behind him, looking as though he'd been confident enough to control every direction of this conversation from the moment he opened his mouth. "They really shouldn't be your primary concern right now, Clementine. Besides," he twisted her words, using her guilt against her, "if you _really_ cared about your friends, don't you think that leaving them would've been the last thing on your mind? I'd ask Sarah about her opinion, but, well…" he trailed off, bending down to Clementine's height as tears sprang to her eyes, "you of all people should remember how _that_ turned out. Getting her killed and all… That must've really burned inside, huh?"

"Sh-shut up!"

"What was it she said to you? As you were busy firing off your gun at me? It's a little hard to recall from the blow, but I'm pretty sure she was asking for help… _Hmph_. Some friend you turned out to be."

"SHUT UP! I… I HATE YOU!"

"Oh, I can tell, Clem. But you know what makes this all the more sweeter?" he taunted, tilting her head up as I could see her clenching her fists. "The fact that after all of this, even after you helped bring down our community and nearly left me for dead… I still win."

Clementine let out an ear-piercing scream as Carver jammed two of his fingers into the girl's burn wound, sending her toppling to the ground in agony as he loomed over her with absolute contempt. Luke belted out her name as she fell, but one of the guards smacked him in the ribs with the butt end of their gun as he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. My grip on the haft of the spear tightened ridiculously as I hid behind the wall, but I hated the fact that even though all of this was happening to her, I couldn't do a damn thing about it. I'd be gunned down in an instant if I were to charge at him from here, and absolutely nothing would change. I'd just be another statistic among the millions that already existed.

"The building might be overrun, but it doesn't change the fact that you still belong to us. To our community. _H_ for Howe's, remember?" he told her, leering at the way her face crinkled in pain. "Let that mark be a lesson to you, Clementine. You're on your third strike. Don't fuck up again, or it'll be a whole lot worse."

Practically dragging her up by the arm, Carver ordered one of his lackeys to tie her up as she tried to glance over her shoulder. It was a simple gesture, innocent to those who didn't know what it meant, since seemingly nobody was standing there.

But I could tell, even without having to hear it from the girl's own mouth, that she was trying to spot me out.

"We're heading out, people! We'll sort out all the positions once we get settled into our new home, alright?" he hollered out, borderline insane as he went from torturing a young girl in one moment, to trying to appear inspirational the next. The guy was completely delusional, and like it or not, I'd just let her walk into that. Alone, afraid, and likely in a pile of shit so big that I wasn't sure if she could climb out.

Feeling completely helpless, I sank to my knees as I watched her and the others get pushed around like a herd of cattle. I waved meekly, knowing fully well that she wouldn't see it, and my heart sank to my stomach. I _knew_ I shouldn't have come back… caring about people only ever hurt in the end. Fuck! I thought that I'd learned that fucking lesson the first time around! How could I have been so god damn stupid?!

Resolve weakened to almost no repair, I wiped my eyes with my sleeve silently as I grunted and forced myself to my feet. Fuck this. I wasn't going to let this break me, not like before. Not like Jaime. It practically killed me, for a long time… wandering from place to place without any one destination in particular to return to.

Poking through the rucksack, I angrily shoved the flashlight to the side, along with some more of the crushed blueberries before stopping short. Shakily, I reached my hand deep within, feeling around for the object as I finally got a grip on its plastic surface.

The second radio, which I'd nearly all but forgotten about, stared back at me as I started glancing between it and the direction that Clementine had just left.

Only a few seconds later did I make up my mind, switching the thing on as it whirred to life.

* * *

 _ **AN:**_ _Hey, guys! Just wanted to take a second to thank you all for being so supportive with this story thus far! It's been an awesome time writing it, and seeing you guys giving so much amazing feedback all the time has made it all the worthwhile. BHBrowne, TheDomdotCom, Freelancer38, Spiderclone, Paradoxilla, G0nna6of4rK1D, Full Power, all the guests, everyone who faved/followed… I can't thank you all enough. Truly, it's brightened up my day seeing that you guys are enjoying this as much as I am._

 _Anyway, that's all for now. I'll try to get the next chapter up when I can :)_


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